Edson Arantes do Nascimento, universally known as Pelé, is considered one of the best soccer players in history. A legend among legends, he boasted of having scored 1,283 goals in the 1,367 official and friendly matches that he computed in a two-decade career that allowed him to mark his name in gold letters in the annals of football. Three times world champion with Brazil, he broke records with the same speed with which he destroyed opponents and raised the ‘Jogo bonito’ to the category of art.
Although the unofficial figure is much higher and Pelé liked to show his chest by numbers, in any case, stratospheric, data from the International Federation of Football History and Statistics prove that the attacker signed 765 goals in 831 games.
Santos was the club of his life, the team he joined at the age of 15 and in whose ranks he dazzled the world for almost two decades. But a series of ruinous deals meant that he had to spend the last years of his sports career with the New York Cosmos, where he added glamor to his epic.
At Santos he secured twenty titles, making Peixe the hegemonic team in Brazil in the 1960s. Apart from the various domestic trophies that he raised with the São Paulo club, Pelé won two Copa Libertadores and two other Intercontinental Cups.
At the age of 34, he landed in the Cosmos as a great claim of the NASL, which would also offer a golden retirement to stars of the caliber of Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer or Carlos Alberto. There he permanently hung his boots on October 1, 1977.
Pelé is the greatest myth of the Brazilian team. He played in four World Cups with the ‘Canarinha’ and lifted the Jules Rimet Cup three times, a milestone that no one has been able to match yet. In addition, he scored three goals in the finals in which he participated.
Trajectory and palmares
The star overcame a childhood marked by poverty in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais to establish himself as a figure of planetary dimension, an icon of the king of sports comparable to what Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was for music or William Shakespeare for literature. His numbers of games played, titles won and goals scored measure the figure of a huge crack who put the ball up his hat and sowed terror in rivals in his path.
World Championship
Paulista Championships
C. Brazilians from Serie A
Rio-Sao Paulo Tournaments
Intercontinental Cups
Libertadores Cups
Intercontinental Cup Winners’ Cup
North American Soccer League
Start playing at
youth categories
Edson Arantes
do Birth
Minas Gerais 1940
Sao Paulo 2022
debuted as
professional
1st game and goal
with the Saints
1acall with
Brazil
youngest champion
1er C. Paulista
C. Paulista and
C. from Brazil
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C. from Brazil
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C. from Brazil
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Goal number 1,000
before Vasco da Gama
only player in
win three world cups
Last season
in Brazil
World Championship
Paulista Championships
C. Brazilians from Serie A
Rio-Sao Paulo Tournaments
Intercontinental Cups
Libertadores Cups
Intercontinental Cup Winners’ Cup
North American Soccer League
Edson Arantes
do Birth
Minas Gerais
1940
sao paulo
2022
Start to
to play in
categories
juvenile
Debut as a professional
1st game and goal
with the Saints
1acall with Brazil
youngest champion
1er C. Paulista
C. Paulista and C. America
C. Paulista and C. of Brazil
C. Paulista and C. of Brazil
C. Paulista and C. of Brazil
C. Paulista and Libertadores
Goal number 1,000 against
Vasco da Gama
Only player to win three
world
Last season in Brazil
World Championship
Paulista Championships
C. Brazilians from Serie A
Rio-Sao Paulo Tournaments
Intercontinental Cups
Libertadores Cups
Intercontinental Cup Winners’ Cup
North American Soccer League
Start playing in youth categories
Edson Arantes
do Birth
Minas Gerais 1940
Sao Paulo 2022
Debut as a professional
1st game and goal with Santos
Firstcall with Brazil
First Paulista Championship
Paulista Championship and America’s Cup
Paulista Championship and Brazil Cup
Paulista Championship and Brazil Cup
Paulista Championship and Brazil Cup
Paulista and Libertadores Championship
Goal number 1,000 against Vasco da Gama
single player
to win three
world
Last season
in Brazil
World Championship
Paulista Championships
C. Brazilians from Serie A
Rio-Sao Paulo Tournaments
Intercontinental Cups
Libertadores Cups
Intercontinental Cup Winners’ Cup
North American Soccer League
C. Paulista and
C. from Brazil
C. Paulista and C. of Brazil
C. Paulista and Libertadores
C. Paulista and C. of Brazil
Goal number 1,000
before Vasco da Gama
C. Paulista and C. America
Edson Arantes
do Birth
Minas Gerais 1940
Sao Paulo 2022
only player in
win three world cups
1thannouncement
with Brazil
debuted as
professional
1st game and goal
with the Saints
Last season
in Brazil
Start playing on
youth categories
Pelé was an early star and knew how to stay at the top for two decades. At the age of 15, he arrived at Santos, the club to which he dedicated the bulk of his career. At 16 he was already a celebrity in Brazil and at 17 he astonished the world leading the verdeamarela in the World Cup in Sweden. It was only the beginning of what was to come.
His participation in World Cups
Pelé held the undisputed leadership of a Brazilian team that produced stars with astonishing ease. Garrincha, Tostao, Jairzinho, Carlos Alberto, Rivellino or Gérson were the perfect complements to the area’s predator who led Verdeamarelha in its heyday. No national team has managed to dazzle the world as Brazil did in those years when it turned football into another art form.
1958, 1962, 1966 and 1970. Of the four World Cups he played with Brazil, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Pelé, won three and became a legend. No one has ever done it again.
With just 17 years and 249 days, Pelé becomes the youngest player to win a World Cup. A record that 64 years later is still valid.
Brazil revalidates the title of champion in Chile but a muscle injury prevents Pelé from playing most of the tournament, he only plays the first two games.
Brazil is eliminated in the first phase. The toughness of the rivals blurs the presence of Pelé, who leaves the ‘Canarinha’ due to injuries after the World Cup.
After hanging up his boots, Pelé took his first steps in the cinema appearing in ‘Evasion or Victory’ (John Huston, 1981), he continued to be linked to the world of football from his offices, served as Brazil’s Minister of Sports and received endless congratulations and affection wherever he went, while the alleged successors struggled to reach their sidereal records. A poorly resolved hip operation in 2012 diminished his quality of life and turned his last years into a transfer of hospitals. The colon cancer that was detected in September 2021 has ended up breaking the resistance of a tireless competitor. Great among the greats.
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