Football Star

More than any other player, Pelé helped make association football, also known as soccer, popular over the whole world. Pelé, whose real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, was born in 1940 in Brazil. Pelé made his debut with the Santos Football Club in 1956. With him playing forward, the team won several South American cups. In 1962 the team won the first world club championship.

Pelé also played on Brazil’s national team and helped it win the World Cup championship in 1958, 1962, and 1970.
Pelé was a brilliant player who possessed great speed and balance. He could guess the moves of other players and had good control of the ball. In addition to all this, he could powerfully shoot a ball straight into the goal with either foot or with his head.

Pelé scored a career total of 1,281 goals in 1,363 matches, with 139 in one year alone. He scored his thousandth goal in 1969. Pelé’s career made him a national hero in Brazil. His fans called him Pérola Negra, meaning “Black Pearl.”
Although Pelé retired in 1974, he made a comeback the next year with a New York team, the Cosmos. He said he returned to “make soccer truly popular in the United States.” He succeeded, becoming a star in the United States as well.

Pelé’s skills did not stop with football. He also wrote best-selling autobiographies, starred in several films, and composed music, including the whole soundtrack to the 1977 film Pelé.