Biography

Pele was the greatest soccer player ever, scoring over 1200 goals in a glittering career that also brought World Cup and World Club Championships. The biography of Pele is a tough act to follow for any modern world cup players!

When soccer fans talk about the greatest player of all time you will debate the skills of Pele, Maradona, Best and some other soccer legends but can anyone match the amazing biography of Pele ? Pele scored an amazing 1281 goals in a career that covered 1360 games ! That is nearly an average of one goal per game !

History of Pele

Pele was a nickname from childhood as the Brazilian soccer star's real name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento, the nickname originated from school. Pele was born in Tres Coracoes in Brazil, in a family that loved soccer, his father being himself a player for Fluminese (his father was known as Dondinho). In this sporty atmosphere, the young Pele learned to enjoy the game, despite the poverty he grew up in. After forming up a "shoeless team" with his street kids, Pele and his team participated in a youth tournament, with Pele ending up as top goal scorer.

The family's situation was even harder when his father had to quit playing soccer professionally due to a knee injury. Thus, for young Pele, soccer was what he regarded as the only way out of poverty and he started training daily, but since he had no money to buy a real ball, he used a stuffed sock instead.

He was immediately noticed by former Brazilian international Waldemar de Brito, who called him to the youth squad of Baquinho, whom he trained and, for the first time, offered Pele money to play soccer.
 
During his year at the club's youth team, Pele managed to win the championship after a dazzling performance: 148 goals in just 33 matches.

Pele was the youngest player ever to win a soccer world cup winners medal when Brazil won the 1958 world cup as a 17 year old. Pele scored 2 goals in the world cup final at the age of 17, an achievement that is unlikely to be matched ever in world cup history.

Pele was brought up in a poor part of Brazil and was guided by his father who was also a professional soccer player, his father once scored five headed goals in the one match!. Pele played for Santos of Brazil and was part of the winning 1962 and 1963 Inter Continental championship winning squad (World Club Championship).

Pele was also part of the 1962 world cup winning squad but injury hampered his appearances and this was also the case in the 1966 England world cup as some brutal tactics put him out of the tournament and Brazil also failed to retain their trophy.

Early Career

At just 15 years of age, Pele was bought by Brazil giants Santos, where he would later team up with some of Brazil's finest players of that era and future World Cup winners, such as Zito, Pepe or Coutinho.

Just one year later after he joined Santos, he became the youngest player to start in the Brazilian first division at age 16 and even more incredibly, he became league top scorer at the end of the season! Talk about starting with the right foot.

As it was not yet the era of Brazilian players running for European careers, Pele remained at Santos for almost 20 years, time in which he scored (read carefully) 1087 goals in 1120 matches. Even if you're not that good at maths, I'm sure you can acknowledge that as an astonishing goal per match ratio.

Brazil 1970 World Cup winners

However the 1970 world cup in Mexico will always be a special memory for Pele fans as he inspired Brazil to a famous victory. The 1970 world cup was a festival of football with a Brazil team that was a joy to watch. Even many years on you will still see the famous Pele video clips and goals as he sold the keeper that famous "dummy" and also scored with a brilliant header in the 1970 world cup final against Italy. Pele later went on to confirm that this was a special goal as it was also Brazil's 100th world cup goal.

Pele retired from international football but made a comeback to sign a money spinning contract with the New York Cosmos in the American soccer league. Pele was part of the 1977 championship winning side and the average crowds increased by over 80% in the few years that he graced the American soccer scene.

If you study the biography of Pele and watch Pele video clips and goals you will no doubt agree that he was a soccer genius, he could play with either foot and could spring in the air to score headers despite his small size compared to defenders. Pele was quick, strong and one of the very best goalscorers.

Biography of Pele - 1000th Goal

One of the milestones in the history of Pele was definitely his 1000th goal scored in all competitions. It was both a highly anticipated moment and an emotional one.

On November 19th, 1969 Pele already had scored 999 goals in his career, either for Santos or Brazil's national team. Playing on the Maracana Stadium, Brazil's "cathedral of soccer", against arch-rivals Vasco Da Gama, Pele managed to score from a penalty kick and broke all records standing in front of him.

National Team and Records -

Throughout his 15 years spent at the Brazil national team, Pele managed to break hundreds of records, but we'll just follow up on those that are deemed most important:

. He became the most prolific striker in Brazil's history, with 77 goals in 92 matches.

. Pele, the footballer who used to shine shoes in order to raise money for a real soccer ball, scored 12 goals in different World Cup matches, being beaten only by Ronaldo.

. He is considered by FIFA the most prolific scorer in soccer history, with 1281 goals in 1363 matches in all competitions.

. He is the only player to have won three World Cups (gasp!), although he did not receive a medal for the one in 1962, since he was injured in the final (he played on several other matches throughout the campaign though)

. He is one of the few players to achieve the performance of scoring in two different World Cup finals, sharing this record with Paul Breitner, Vava and Zinedine Zidane.