Pele - World Cup Legend
Born in Tres Corcas, Brazil, Pele (Edson Arantes Do Nascimento) is one
of the greatest footballers of all time. But life wasn’t always
so rosy and coming from humble surroundings meant that Pele had to work
from a young age shining shoes for pennies.
When not working, Pele played football and by the age of 11 was discovered
by one of the then premier Brazilian footballers Waldemar de Brito. Brito
brought Pele to Sao Paulo and famously declared to the club directors
that "This boy will be the greatest soccer player in the world."
Within five years he was proved right as Pele made his first team debut against Corinthians FC and scored – he was just shy of 16. The 1958 World Cup was on the horizon and 17 year old Pele astounded the world by scoring six goals for Brazil including two of them in the final ensuring that the Jules Rimet trophy went home to Brazil. A legend was born and the shirt that Pele wore on that famous day back in ’58 sold for $105,600 at auction in Christies in 2004!
His speed, balance, tremendous vision, superb ball control and his ability
to shoot and score goals meant that Pele became not only a national hero
but a permanent fixture on the Brazilian team, allowing him to play in
a further three World Cups.
Of the four World Cups that Pele participated in Brazil won three of them
– an unprecedented achievement for any single footballer in the
world before or since. Of course, this created phenomenal interest in
Pele and European clubs lined up to sign the superstar but the President
of Brazil had other ideas and declared him a "national treasure"
to thwart any potential transfer to a European club.
By the time the 1970 World Cup final rolled around, the world was holding it’s breath in anticipation of what this footballing genius could pull out of the bag and he didn’t disappoint. Tarcisio Burgnich, the Italian defender who had been handed the unenviable task of marking Pele in the Final was later quoted as saying: "I told myself before the game, 'he's made of skin and bones just like everyone else' - but I was wrong" and Brazil went on to win the World Cup.
Pele had become a living legend and the day after the final the Sunday Times headline summed it up: "How do you spell Pele? G-O-D". Pele set some truly startling records in his long and distinguished career. His 1,000th goal came in 1969 in front of a delirious crowd at the Maracana stadium. He scored 5 goals in a game on no less than 6 occasions, 4 goals on 30 occasions and a hat-trick 92 times. In all, the great man notched up 1281 goals in 1363 games and picked up 92 international caps.
Pele hung up his boots for the last time in 1977 and has gone on to use
his ambassador status to promote his country, the UN and UNICEF. "Every
kid in the world who plays football wants to be Pele - which means I have
the responsibility of showing them how to be a footballer but also how
to be a man". But isn’t that what Gods are for?
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