Pelé learned football kicking a grapefruit, then Brazil declared him national treasure
Too poor to own a proper ball, the boy from Bauru practised with a grapefruit or a sock stuffed with newspaper. A few years later Brazil's government declared him an official national treasure, largely to stop foreign clubs from buying him. He went on to win three World Cups, a feat no other player has matched.
He was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento in 1940, named after Thomas Edison; his parents dropped the i, though a mistake on his birth certificate put it back. The nickname Pelé, he said, probably came from mangling the name of his favourite goalkeeper, Bilé. His father, a former professional player, taught him the game, and as a teenager he also played futsal, the fast indoor version. He credited it with teaching him to think quickly in tight spaces and with letting him compete against adults at about 14.
At 15 his youth coach, Waldemar de Brito, took him to Santos and told the directors he would be the greatest player in the world. He scored on his senior debut in September 1956 and was playing for Brazil at 16. At the 1958 World Cup, aged 17, he became the youngest player ever to win the tournament and earned the nickname O Rei, the King. More titles followed in 1962 and 1970.
With Santos he won the Copa Libertadores and the Intercontinental Cup in both 1962 and 1963, scoring a hat-trick in Lisbon against Benfica, whose goalkeeper said he felt beaten by someone from another planet. In 1961 at the Maracanã he ran the length of the pitch to score a goal honoured with a plaque in the stadium. His thousandth goal, a penalty against Vasco da Gama in November 1969, was a national event.
Guinness credits him with 1,279 goals in 1,363 games, counting exhibitions. The International Olympic Committee named him Athlete of the Century in 1999. After retiring in 1977 he became football's global ambassador, and he died in December 2022.
Source: Pelé
