“F***, Brazil lost the World Cup,” said the nine-year-old Edson Arantes do Nascimento, as he noticed his father was crying after the national team lost the 1950 World Cup to Uruguay. The boy who earned some coins as a shoe-shiner, never forgot that day.
Christened, Thomas Edison, after inventor, Edson, was proud of his name but couldn’t avoid the bullying from a classmate who insisted on calling him Pele – he hated it because he thought it sounded too childlike. He ended up punching his tormentor and got suspended from school for two days. When he returned to class, he was not Edson anymore, he was Pele to everyone. And he should thank his schoolmate for this – because Brazilians usually say that Edson and Pele are two different people. Of course, that has nothing to do with his 1,281 career goals.
At the age of 17, in 1958, Pele became the youngest player to feature in a World Cup Final. He scored six times in Sweden, including a semi-final hat-trick and two more in the final. It was to be the first of three World Cup trophies he brought back home as an answer to those tears he saw running down his dad’s face. “Pele with his mouth shut is a poet. On the field, he was our father, outside it, he should put a shoe in his mouth,” Romario once said about him. Below Pele in 1962
This tournament, hosted in Mexico, saw England, the1966 World Cup Winners, qualify as "holders". Despite losing 0-1 to Brazil, ending up runners-up in their Group. Romania 2 points and Czechoslovakia 0 points came 3rd and 4th. England lost the Quarter-final 2-3 aet to West Germany, having been 0-1 up at half time, and Brazil motored on, to win the Final 4-1 against Italy. Which ever team won that game "kept" the Jules Rimet Trophy, both having won it three times. Brazil, manager, Mario Zagolo added another winners medal to the two he won as a player.
While Jairzinho top scored in the tournament, Pele added four more to his World Cup tally. In the 1960s and '70s, Pele travelled the world with his club team Santos. In Nigeria, a two-day truce was declared in the war with Biafra as a way for both sides to watch him play. His impact on the Nigerian football psyche is so huge that when he predicted an African nation would win the World Cup before the noughties, local fans already saw it coming. “In some countries they wanted to touch him, in some they wanted to kiss him. In others they even kissed the ground he walked on,” said his former team-mate Clodoaldo. The Brazilian played his last game for Santos in 1974 and postponed his retirement plans to sign for the New York Cosmos. He was in debt and desperate to recover his finances, so chose to move to the North American Soccer League. After leading the Cosmos to the NASL title in 1977, he played his farewell game on a rainy New York day. But how many days he'd brightened before that.
Perhaps as a way to protect everything, Pele did, to become the most complete player that football has ever seen. Those who couldn't put up with his choices after retirement (the decision not to recognise his own daughter, or his endorsement of people like Sepp Blatter) preferred to call him Edson from the day he hung up his boots. “Pele with his mouth shut is a poet. On the field, he was our father, outside it, he should put a shoe in his mouth,” Romario once said about him.
Career highlight? On November 19, 1969, Pele scored his 1,000th goal from a penalty in a match against Vasco da Gama at the Maracana stadium. Statistics vary...here's one source. RSSSF 2021
In December 2000, Pelé and Maradona shared the prize of FIFA Player of the Century. The records he held may be found on the www!
Club/team Matches Goals
Santos FC 660 643
New York Cosmos 64 37
Brazil 92 77
Military Team 4 4
São Paulo 15 12
Other Selections 5 2
TOTAL 840 775
