![]() Pele celebrates the victory after winning the 1970 World Cup on June 21, 1970, in Città del Messico, Mexico. There is some debate over Guinness’ total number, however, since multiple outlets reported that he scored more than 500 of those goals in “unofficial friendlies and tour games,” rather than in professional competition. The four goals Pelé scored in his 1956 professional debut only set the stage for the 1,283 total goals he’d go on to rack up over the years. Of course, that’s but one of the many records he broke on the soccer field. I didn't have the desire to play outside the country.” He held two Guinness World Recordsīy the end of his career, Pelé had won three FIFA World Cups with Brazil (in 1958, 19), earning him the most wins by any player. But at that time, we didn't have too many Brazilian players outside the country. For Real Madrid, for AC Milan, for Bayern Munich. “I was invited - I had several proposals to play in Europe. But I pay income tax like anybody else,” he joked to Esquirein 2016. “Well, first of all it was an honor for me. In order to prevent him from being traded to foreign teams, Brazilian President Jânio Quadros eventually had Pelé declared a national treasure in 1961. He’s a Brazilian national treasure - literallyĪfter Pelé led Brazil’s national team to their first World Cup win in 1958, European clubs such as Real Madrid, Juventus, Inter Milan and Manchester United began courting the rising star. “He will pay his own taxes, just like every American,” Cosmos vice president and general manager Clive Toye explained in 1975, per the newspaper. The New York Times estimated that $2 million of the deal went to taxes for the native Brazilian, however. ![]() Years later, he signed a three-year $7 million contract with the New York Cosmos in 1975, making him the highest‐paid team athlete in the world at the time. According to ESPN, he used his pay to buy his mother a gas stove, though their town didn’t haven’t the capability to pipe gas into homes. Getty Images His first contract was far from lucrativeĪt 15 years old, Pelé signed his first contract with Santos in 1956, earning just $10 a month. Pelé (center, in yellow jersey) on the ball for Brazil during a group stage match against Bulgaria at Goodison Park during the 1966 World Cup tournament in Liverpool, England. Later, barefooted games played in vacant lots became known as “ pelada,” believed to be named after Pelé. Unable to afford shoes himself, he also frequently played barefoot, and his friends eventually formed a team called the Shoeless Ones. When he was 6, the family moved to a larger town in southern Brazil, where he shined shoes and sold roasted peanuts outside movie theaters to earn money for a soccer ball. Growing up in poverty, Pelé practiced his dribbling skills with a sock stuffed with rags when his family couldn’t afford to buy him an actual soccer ball. “Now I love the name - but back then it wound me up no end.” He got creative when he couldn’t afford a soccer ball or shoes On one occasion I punched a classmate because of it and earned a two-day suspension,” he wrote. “So when someone said, "Hey, Pelé," I would shout back and get angry. Edson sounded so much more serious and important.” Although the sports star added he “can never be 100 percent certain about the origin,” the most probable explanation is that the nickname was given to him by classmates because he mispronounced the name of one of his dad’s soccer teammates: Vasco de Sao Lourenco, a goalkeeper affectionately known as "Bilé." “I was really proud that I was named after Thomas Edison and wanted to be called Edson,” he wrote in a 2006 Guardian piece. First nicknamed “Dico” by his family, Pelé later explained that the moniker by which he’s currently known worldwide “really bugged” him at first. ”Electricity had just been introduced to my hometown in Brazil when I was born,” wrote the Três Corações native. ![]() Although he was widely considered to be the greatest soccer player of all time, here are 10 things you might not know about Pelé: He was named after Thomas EdisonĪs Pelé explained in a September 2014 tweet, his father João Ramos, a soccer player also known as Dondinho, and mother Dona Celeste named him Edson, after Thomas Edison. Thus began Pelé's storied career, and by the time he played his final professional game in 1977, he’d netted over 1,280 career goals as part of Brazil’s Santos Football Club and the New York Cosmos. Eight years in 1958 later, however, his so-called joke became a reality when he won the first of his record-breaking three World Cup titles “I remember jokingly saying to him: ‘Don’t cry, dad - I’ll win the World Cup for you,” Pelé recalled to in 2014. After Brazil lost the 1950 World Cup final to Uruguay, a 9 or 10-year-old Edson Arantes do Nascimento, now better known as Pelé, made a promise to his devastated father.
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