For us younger people, Brazil football is great because that is how it’s intended to be we take that as a natural order of things, having grown up with the Brazilian football team’s successes in the world Cups of the 1990s. But the parable of Brazilian football was born a lot earlier, in times when football started to become an international “plague” and there are plenty of folk who attribute this internalization of football to the Brazilian team of the 50s, a team that was lead to success by one of the most preeminent figures in sports, the famous football player Pele.
Born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Pele climbed a steep mountain from living his youth in a poor Brazilian family, to becoming one of the most adored figures in the recent history of sports. His pop was a footballer himself, playing for Fluminense in the Brazilian league and it was only natural that young Pele would follow his father’s steps in the game. Rumor has it this nickname was given to him in elementary school, as he kept misspelling the name of one of his favorite players at that point, Vasco Da Gama’s goalkeeper Bile. His schoolmates gave him this new nickname and generally ridiculed him, so he glaringly detested it; such a lot that he punched the fellow classmate that coined the nicknamed. In time, he steadily became used to it and even started liking it and it was not long before everybody knew the football wonder kid as Pele.
Living in misery, he could not afford football appliances, or a football ball. He shined shoes for an additional coin that would help him and his chums stitch up a newspaper-filled sock to use as soccer. He formed a team with his neighbors from the Sete de Setembro street and even took part in a youth tournament, where the team earned the nickname “the shoeless ones” because not one of the youngsters could afford to waste their walking shoes (if any) on playing football.
1 or 2 years later, each member of the team worked hard for the additional cash to get a correct pair of trainers and renamed their team to Ameriquinha. Taking part in countless youth contests with Ameriquinha, Pele built a name for himself at a tender age for his ability in front of goal, becoming top scorer in nearly all these competitions. At the tender age of fifteen, he caught the eyes of one of the most important groups in Brazil, FC Santos, who offered him a contract and by sixteen he was an affiliate of the senior squad. He spent nearly his whole career at Santos, since EU transfers were not that preferred back, though the last two years of his career were spent at Long Island Cosmos, before Pele eventually hanged his boots. Pele made his debut in the Brazilian football team in the same year he debuted at Santos’ senior squad, when he was just sixteen years old. Incredibly, he was taken on to the 1958 World Cup squad, at age seventeen, turning into the youngest player in the contest.
He even scored a vital goal in the quarterfinals against Wales, a goal which took Brazil past that stage and into the semis. But Pele was saving the best for the final: meeting Sweden, he scored an impressive goal, pitching the ball past a defender and volleying it into the net, ultimately winning the final for Brazil. After the match finished, the effort and the joy bundled up and the 17-year old Pele could not take it, passing out on the field and needing medical assistance.
As a soccer player, Pele attended three more World Cups, between 1962 and 1970, winning the 1st and latter. He was the 1st player ever to score in four different World Cups and in 1970 he achieved a completely unique performance that boosted him to the heights of global football: he scored one thousand official goals for club and country. Though many dispute this record or try to bring it down, announcing that football was not as defensive or tactical back than as it is today (which is partly true), his merit of being a major stand pole on the world football stage between the mid 50s all of the way to the late 70s shouldn’t be weakened. Named best football player in the world and sportsman of the 20th century, Pele now acts as an envoy for football and fair play.
Tags: Football King, Pele Biography