Soccer Fan Club

Edson Arantes Do Nascimento (better known as Pele) is well known as a king of Football. He was born on October 23, 1940, in Tres Coracoes, a small village in Brazil. He began playing football at the age of five. He first learned the soccer skills from his father, Dondinho. His father also used to be a good soccer player, whose career came to an early close due to a knee injury. He did not belong to a well off family, therefore he had to adopt to shoe polishing in order to maintain their livelihood.

At the age of eleven Pele was invited by Brazilian premier players, Waldemar de Brito to be part of de Brito’s amateur team, Clube Atletico Bauru. He was the first player who played World Cup at the age 17 years. He scored two goals in the final as Brazil beat Sweden 5–2 in Stockholm. He headed the Brazilian national team for three World Cup titles (’58,’62,’70). He was blessed with speed, great balance, tremendous vision, the ability to control the ball superbly, and the ability to shoot powerfully and accurately with either foot and with his head. His most spectacular signature move was probably the “bicycle kick”.

Did you know?
1) He scored 1281 goals in 1363 matches (all time world record).
2) In 2000, Pelé was honored with “Sportsman of the Century” award. He was the 2nd sportstar for this honor before that the legendary Muhammad Ali got the honors.
3) Pele hated his nickname, and was once suspended from school for 2 days for punching the classmate that coined it.