For what remains of March, I’ll change things up and write about athletes rather than academics.
Pelé is considered the greatest soccer player (or footballer) of all time. From humble beginnings, he rose to become the most celebrated player on the Brazilian national team by age 18, with his performance at the 1958 World Cup. Pelé went on to win two more world cups and remains the only player in history to have won three. Since retiring, he has written numerous autobiographies, composed musical pieces, starred in documentaries, and been a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. For many decades, he has been revered in his home country of Brazil and respected worldwide.
Pelé as a young man
Pelé was born in Brazil in October 1940 as Edson Arantes do Nascimento. His parents named him after the inventor Thomas Edison; his now-revered nickname, Pelé, was bestowed on him by his friends to mock the way he pronounced Bilé, the name of his favorite soccer player. He hated the name at first, but it stuck, and eventually he accepted it.
As a kid, Pelé developed his soccer skills by kicking around a rolled-up sock stuffed with newspaper; his family didn’t have enough money for a real soccer ball. This didn’t hold him back, though; he won three state youth championships in São Paulo, as well as several indoor championships with the team Radium. By the age of 15, he signed with the professional soccer team FC Santos; the following year, he was promoted to the starting lineup and led the league in scoring. Soon thereafter, he was called up to the Brazilian national team.
Pelé made his debut on the world stage in the 1958 World Cup, at just 17 years of age. He made quite a favorable impression, completing a hat trick in the semifinals against France and scoring two more goals in the championship to secure victory over the host nation, Sweden.
Pelé celebrates a goal in the 1958 World Cup
By the time the 1962 World Cup came around, Pelé was the top-rated player in the world. Though he was sidelined by an early injury, Brazil defended their title and Pelé soon received large offers to play for European club teams. However, the Brazilian President Jânio Quadros kept him in Brazil by declaring him a national treasure. FC Santos also compensated him generously, holding international exhibition matches to raise money from and for their superstar. In 1967, Pelé’s appearance in an exhibition game in Lagos occasioned a two-day ceasefire in the Nigerian Civil War so the warring factions could watch him play.
Pelé’s reputation was well-earned; with FC Santos, he won nine Campeonato Paulista titles in 12 years, as well as two Intercontinental Cups and two Copa Libertadores titles; his remains the only Brazilian team to win the Copa Libertadores title on Argentinian soil. In his first appearance in the Campeonato Paulista tournament, he set a still-standing record by scoring 58 goals. In the course of his career, he scored an all-time record 1281 goals in 1363 games.
The 1966 World Cup in England was disastrous for Pelé. Still seen as the best player in the world, he was a tempting target for Bulgaria and Portugal; they fouled him so persistently that he was reduced to limping around the field in Brazil’s third and final match, which was against Portugal. Many thought that the referee “let Portugal get away with murder,” and the rest of the tournament was similarly hostile. Pelé vowed to never compete in another world cup, and Brazilian teams boycotted international events for several years thereafter.
Pelé injured at 1966 World Cup in England
However, Pelé did return for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. Brazil fielded what is widely considered the best soccer team in history, and this time they would not be defeated by violence – or anything else. They made Brazil the first country to win three world cups winning all six games they played (Pelé was on all three world cup-winning teams, though he was injured for most of the 1962 tournament). The 1970 Brazilian team defeated a defensive-minded Italy 4-1 in the final; the Italian who marked Pelé was quoted saying “I told myself before the game, he’s made of skin and bones just like everyone else — but I was wrong.”
Pelé raises the Jules Rimet Trophy for Brazil
The 1970 World Cup would be Pelé’s last. He retired from soccer in 1974 before returning to play in the U.S. for a few years, for the New York Cosmos. His legacy as a footballer is almost undisputed (some sources point out that he was surrounded by other stars; for example, the Brazilian team was good enough to win the 1962 World Cup without him, mostly on the back of fellow superstar Garrincha, who also led the 1958 team). While playing, though, Pelé was referred to by various nicknames that included the word “King”.
Pelé in the famous number 10 jersey
His personal life has been a bit mixed; in that aspect, he is a mere mortal. On the positive side, Pelé’s teammates reported that he was always smiling and genuinely enthusiastic; he told reporters that he wanted his play to be a point of unity, as it was in Lagos in 1967. He has also supported a few humanitarian and political causes; for example, as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in the late 1990s, he proposed what would become known as the Pelé Law, to reduce corruption in Brazilian soccer.
However, he stepped down from his position in 2001 upon being accused of corruption himself; it should be noted that nothing was proven, though. He also refused to recognize one of the daughters he had through an affair, and she won a lawsuit against him to earn official recognition via DNA testing. He has been criticized for his conservative stances; his response to the 2014 World Cup protests in Brazil was to scold protestors, encouraging them to just support the national team (protestors were angry that the government would spend millions of dollars on new stadiums but leave them with inadequate social services). His countless corporate endorsements have also somewhat degraded his image.
A few of Pelé’s many endorsements
These recent issues do not diminish his incredible football accomplishments, however. Pelé is still considered to have had the most complete skill set of any footballer in history, and his masterful improvisations on the pitch are still breathtaking to watch. He may not be quite godly, as several of his contemporary players suggest, but he did manage to go from a boy practicing soccer with a rolled up sock to the best soccer player in the world. O Rei Pelé (King Pelé) indeed.
Pelé also popularized the bicycle kick.
Soccer holds a dear place in my life as my favorite sport to watch, and also because my father played on Pakistan’s national team when he was in college. Whenever you ask people who the best player ever was, and they have a debate, they are debating about who is 2nd best of all time, because no one ever came close to Pele’ skills. I really like that you made a slight transition from academics to athletes because I’m not gonna lie this is the first post in a while that I actually know a lot about the person you wrote about. My Dad used to tell me the story of how he was a a 5 year old watching Pele play towards the end of his career, and the stories are really endearing. I think you should check out some other sports legends that are a bit more obscure also, like Ayrton Senna or maybe Roberto Duran.
Really cool choice of historical figure. I love soccer and never knew about him before. I also like how you didn’t glorify him; rather, you even included stuff about his own corruption and daughter. Just because he was super talented at soccer doesn’t mean he was a perfect person.
Well done, I like how you are jumping around to different categories of people so to speak. You are also picking people who most have heard of but few know much about. This is once again true of Pele for me…I’ve watched the World Cup and all, but never really kept track of soccer, and he played well before my time anyway. You make sure to not only describe his athletic accomplishments but his personal life as well, and do so in an unbiased way that presents only what is known to be factual.
good memorie.