Pele
Pele was a very famous football/soccer player who was born on the 23rd of October 1940. Pele grew up in a very poor family in Tres Coracos, Brazil. Pele is just a nickname for Edson Arantes Do Nascimento which is why he was given this nickname since he has such a long name. Growing up his parents and friends called him ‘Dico’. He first learned the game football from his dad ‘Dondinho’ who was a centre forward until his career came to an end with a fractured leg. Pele began playing when he was a young boy for a local minor team, when he wasn’t playing he was shining shoes for pennies. He was first discovered at age 11 by one of the countries premier players, Waldemar de Brito. Waldemar took Pele to Sao Paulo and said, ‘This boy will be the greatest player in the world’. He was right! Pele had an immediate impact, in his first game he scored a goal right away at age 16! Pele went on to four world cups with his national team Brazil. Pele was an average sized man but blessed with speed, balance, excellent vision, being able to control a ball superbly, being able to shoot powerfully and accurately with either foot and head. Some wealthy European clubs offered large amounts of money to sign the young Brazilian but the government of Brazil declared him an official national treasure to prevent him being transferred out of the country. Pele said ‘My father was a footballer who once scored 5 goals in a single game all with his head, a record I was never able to beat’. Pele’s statistics are astounding scoring 1,280 goals in 1,360 games second to Arthur Friedenreich who scored 1,329 goals. Pele holds the record for hat tricks scoring 92 in his career. His statistics are even more mind blowing compared to today’s players who struggle to score 30 goals in a season. Pele played for Santos for most of his career retired and then came out of retirement to play for the New york cosmos. Pele in many ways was a complete athlete, with superb skill and agility he could dribble around