Pelé was on the verge of winning the World Cup gold three times, he has been named the player of the century and his face has sold Nokia mobile phones and Viagra.
Edson Arantes do Nascimento i.e. better by name Pele the famous former brazilian soccer player has died today thursday. Pelé was 82 years old when he died.
Pelé was hospitalized for a long time due to colon cancer. He also suffered from kidney and heart problems.
Pelé is widely regarded as the greatest footballer of all time. He also has an achievement that no one else has: he was on the verge of winning the world championship three times, in 1958, 1962 and 1970.
In 2000, Pelé and Diego Maradona both received the “player of the century” award from the International Football Association (FIFA).
There are different versions of Pelé’s career goals. On his own Instagram account, 1283 goals were mentioned and he was declared “the top scorer of all time”. The chapter also includes Friendly matches and other unofficial matches. When these are removed, Pelé had a total of 767 goals for Santos, the New York Cosmos and the Brazilian national team. A respectable number too.
Pelé was born in a town called Três Corações, but he grew up in Bauru, which is located in the state of São Paulo. His father João Ramos do Nascimento (Dondinho) was also a footballer, but he didn’t earn much from his playing. Pelé lived in poverty as a child and they, among other things, could not afford to buy a real soccer ball, so it was made from, for example, a sock filled with newspapers.
As a junior, Pelé played in several clubs and also indoor soccer, futsal. Pelé later said that futsal, among other things, developed his ability to perceive situations faster.
Pelé junior team coach Waldemar de Brito took the 15-year-old to Santos FC, near São Paulo. De Brito is reported to have said that “this modestly dressed boy will become the best footballer in the world”.
Pelé was a hit as soon as he joined the team: he was his team’s top scorer in his first full season, and Santos won the São Paulo regional championship the following season. These were followed by nine state championships and five national league championships, as well as two South American club championships.
When Santos won the Intercontinental Cup (a meeting between the winners of the Copa Libertadores and the European Cup) in 1962 against Benfica and in 1963 against AC Milan, Pelé scored a total of seven goals in the two legs.
Pelé played for Santos between 1956 and 1974, which means he represented the same club for an exceptionally long time. He was courted both by bigger clubs in South America and also in Europe. Pelé said in 2016 For FourFourTwo.comthat at that time player transfers abroad were rare.
“We were like a family. Why would we want to change it to get a little more money? After 1968 I got offers from Europe and Mexico. I said: ‘No, it’s ok that I play for Santos. I don’t want change.’”
Even after finishing Santosisa in 1974, Pelé received offers from major European clubs, but he did not want to go to Europe.
“Being a family is the most important thing. I knew everyone playing there [Santosissa], my family was there. I changed clubs just to play for the New York Cosmos.”
To Cosmos Pelé moved in 1975. He had stopped playing regularly for Santos a year earlier, but he had still played some matches after that.
With Pelé, several star players moved to the Cosmos and other North American professional leagues (NASL) at the time to cool off. In 1977, Pelé led the Cosmos to the NASL championship. It was also his last season with the club.
Pelé ended his playing career on October 1, 1977 in an exhibition match in New York, where Santos and Cosmos met.
To world fame Pelé rose to prominence in the Brazilian national team, where he made his first appearance in 1957. Brazil lost to Argentina 1-2, but the 16-year-old Pelé scored Brazil’s goal.
Pelé came to the 1958 World Cup in Sweden with a knee injury. Pelé played his first World Cup match in Brazil’s third match against the Soviet Union, but in the semi-final against France, the nets began to swing: a hat-trick in the second half meant three goals. In the final match against Sweden, Pelé scored two goals as Brazil won the final match 5-2.
Pelé already arrived at the 1962 World Cup as the tournament’s number one seed. However, Pelé was injured in the second match of the tournament and did not play after that. Pelé arrived at the 1966 World Cup tournament again as the biggest star, but the ball player who was subjected to violent attacks was injured again. In addition, Brazil did not reach the medal games.
Pele decided that he will never play in the World Cup again precisely because of the hard tackles.
However, he overturned his decision, and the Brazil team of the 1970 World Cup finals in Mexico has been considered the all-time national team, which featured, among others Rivelino, Jairzinho and Gerson. In the 1970 Games, Pelé also played in every match.
In the final match, Italy lost 4-1, and Pelé scored the opening goal. Ordered to guard Pelé in the final Tarcisio Burgnich stated after the match: “I told myself before the match that he is made of skin and bones like everyone else – I was wrong.”
One thing left Pelé sad about the World Cup tournaments: he never scored a goal with a scissor kick in them.
“This is a personal matter that has no real meaning, but that’s how I feel,” Pelé states in his autobiography.
Playing career since Pelé has, among other things, been a UNESCO goodwill ambassador and Brazil’s minister of sports. He didn’t avoid bumps either. In 2001, Pelé was suspected of being involved in stealing $700,000 from Unicef. The reason was a fee for a football match, which was not played in the end but the money was not returned. In the end, the matter could not be proven and Unicef also denied the robbery.
Pelé was also criticized at a time when Brazil was ruled by a military junta. Pelé practically refrained from any comment. The 2013 protests in Brazil protested against expensive public transport charges. Pelé stated: “Forget the protests, support the Brazilian national team.” As a result, Pelé’s statue was gagged.
Its own chapter is that Pelé used his face to advertise numerous products from Nokia to Viagra. He only skipped tobacco, alcohol and religious ads. Pelé himself emphasized that he only gave his name to one product, Café Pelé. In his autobiography, Pelé told a special incident related to it.
“When captured by the United States Armed Forces Saddam Hussein in 2003, he apparently hid in a hole in the ground with only three things on him: a submachine gun, a suitcase of dollars and a packet of Pelé coffee!”
Pelé was married three times and has a total of seven children from several relationships.
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