Pele: Pele, who is widely regarded as the greatest player in football history, inspired people around the globe long before players like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo became well-known figures. The legend from Brazil, who passed away on Thursday at the age of 82 after a battle with colon cancer, is profiled in 10 facts.
Pele was named after inventor Thomas Edison
His real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, but he was later named Thomas Edison after the invention of the lightbulb, as his hometown had just received electricity at the time of his birth. As a young child, he was given the nickname Pele after he accidentally mispronounced the name of one of his father’s teammates, goalkeeper Vasco de Sao Lourenco, who was known as “Bile.”
He did not like his nickname, despite the fact that it is now a household name. Pele wrote in a Guardian article from 2006, “I thought Pele sounded horrible.” It was a rubbish name. Edson sounded so much more serious and important.”
He has unofficially scored 1283 goals in his career
Even today, debate rages over Pele’s goal total. Pele holds the Guinness World Record for most career goals scored in football with 1,279, despite the Prolific Scorers Data claiming he has only scored 778 goals, a total only surpassed by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The controversy stems from Pele’s numerous friendlies while on tour with Santos, which were ambiguous. In 2015, Pele himself weighed in on the debate by claiming that the actual number was 1,283.
Pele shaped Brazil to their first World Cup victory
Pele helped Brazil win their first World Cup in 1958 by scoring six goals in four games. At the competition, he also won the FIFA Young Player Award for the first time at the age of 17, making history. He is still the only football player to have won the World Cup three times. It’s interesting to note that Pele was forced to take a career break after his World Cup heroics to complete a six-month military service.
Pele was raised in poverty
Pele started shoe shining and selling roasted peanuts outside movie theaters when he was just 6 years old. He practiced his ball control and dribbling skills with a sock filled with rags because his family couldn’t afford a football. He also established a team known as “The Shoeless Ones” while playing barefoot. Pele is thought to be the inspiration for the name “pelada,” a Brazilian term for barefoot games played in open spaces.
Pele’s initial professional deal only paid him US$10 a month
Pele was just 15 years old when he signed his first professional contract with Santos in 1956, and his monthly salary was only US$10. He bought his family a gas stove with his pay. He became the highest-paid team athlete in the world at the time when he signed a record-breaking three-year, US$7 million contract with the American team New York Cosmos 19 years later. Pele was required to pay the United States about $2 million in taxes from the contract, which he gladly did.
Pele’s appearance prompted a civil war to end
He was so well-known worldwide that in 1967, Pele briefly put an end to a civil war in Nigeria. To allow Federal and Rebel troops to watch him play when he visited, a 48-hour ceasefire was declared. Due to high demand, the New York Cosmos had to prepare shirts for every member of the opposing team before every game when Pele played for them. At the time, one of the Cosmos’ coaches, Gordon Bradley, said, “Pele was the main attraction.” Sometimes we had to take 25 or 30 shirts with us to a match—otherwise, we’d never have gotten out of the stadium alive.”
Pele was once Brazil’s Minister of Sports
Pele was appointed as the Extraordinary Minister for Sport by Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the president of Brazil, in 1995. Pele established the “Pele Law” during his three-year tenure, modernizing the nation’s sports industry. The bill released teenage athletes from contracts they had signed with their clubs at a young age and required all professional local sports clubs to pay tax within two years.
The Football did his part for charity
He assisted in the fight against corruption in Brazil and the preservation of the environment after being named the UN’s goodwill ambassador in 1994. In 2018, Pele established his charitable organization, Roots of Fight, with the goal of supporting organizations working tirelessly to empower children around the world, particularly in the areas of eradicating poverty and gaining access to education.
Pele never won the Ballon D’Or
Despite his enormous accomplishments, Pele was unable to win the Ballon d’Or during his playing career because, until 1995, only European players were eligible for the prestigious award. The honorary Ballon d’Or award was later given to him by FIFA in 2014.
November 19 is Pele Day in Brazil
The Maracana stadium erupted when he reportedly scored his 1,000th career goal on November 19, 1969, while playing for Santos against rival Vasco da Gama. Fans reportedly ran onto the field to hold him aloft, causing a 30-minute delay in play. Pele Day is now observed on November 19 in Brazil.
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