Pele The Soccer Player

Pele is officially declared as the football ambassador of the world by FIFA and a national treasure by the Brazilian government. He is also known for his social works as he raised a lot of voice for the policies to improve the condition of the poor. He dedicated his 1000th goal to the poor children of Brazil. He received many titles through out his career. These include, “The King of Football”, “The King Pele” or simply “The King”. He is also a member of the American National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Full name Edson Arnates, the soccer player Pele was born on October 23, 1940 in Tres Coracoes, Brazil. He grew up in extreme poverty in Bauru. Sao Paulo. He used to earn some extra money by polishing the shoes at Bauru Athletic Club on the match days. His father himself was a footballer, who had to leave the play due to a knee injury, at a very early stage. He was so poor that he could not even buy a football, and used to stuff a sock with newspapers or grape fruit, tied with a string.

Pele is rated as one of the greatest footballers of all time. He was also given the title of Athlete of the Century by International Olympic Committee. He together received the FIFA award of the greatest footballer in the history along with Diego Maradona. The award was set to be based upon the web pole, but it was clearly favouring Diego Maradona. But that became controversial because of the fact that younger generation, the main users of the internet, has merely seen Maradona playing and not Pele. Therefore, answering these allegations FIFA appointed a “Family of Football”, the committee of soccer to decide the winner of the award. So in the end Pele and Maradona were announced as the joint winner.

Pele played for Santos at the age of 15 in 1956 for the first time, and remained with it till 1974. During his stay Santos won in nine of the State Championships and had two World Club Championships in 1962 and 1963. He made his international debut at the age of 16 and the following year he was selected for the 1958 World Cup squad. He played his first international game versus Argentina, which Brazil lost by 2 goals to 1. Remained out from the earlier games of the World Cup because of the injury he received when he played his first match against USSR, in the first round. However, he could only score his initial world cup goal in the quarter final against Wales, and became the youngest player to score the goal in World Cup. It was the only goal of the match. In semi final against France he scored a hat trick in the second round, again the youngest ever player to do so in World Cup history. In final he scored two goals as Brazil defeated Sweden by 5-2. He was so overjoyed by the victory that he passed out after the game finished and had to be provided with the medical assistance. He finished the tournament with six goals in four games. Pele’s tricks and goal scoring skills became very famous amongst other players.

Pele’s goal scoring record is said to be 1280 goals in 1363 matches. This record also includes the goals scored by him in club matches. Pele scored seventy seven international goals in ninety two appearances and is on third number in all time top goal scorers international matches. He is on fourth number on the list of all top goal scorers in World Cup. Brazil won three world cups when he was a part of the team. Many of Pele’s pictures and videos of the goals he has scored in his career are available online.