Oct. 21: Pele, the larger-than-life King of Football celebrates his 70th birthday Saturday, and can proudly look back on a remarkable career that took him from the shanty towns of provincial Brazil to worldwide fame, fortune and admiration.
Born in Tres Coracoes, a poor town in the state of Sao Paulo, with the name Edson Arantes do Nascimiento, he soon become known as Pele because of the way that he mispronounced the name of Bile, his favourite player, goalkeeper for Vasco da Gama. He was taught the basics of the game by his father, Dondinho, who was a semi-professional centre-forward until his career was ruined by a badly broken leg.
Pele had to help his impoverished family by working as a shoe-shine boy and a waiter. Even so, he always found time to play football barefoot with his friends on a patch of wasteground, usually with a ball of rags and string, and he soon caught the eye with his powerful legs, ability with both feet, strength in the air, lightning speed and uncanny vision.
He was discovered at the age of 11 by one of the country’s leading players, Waldemar de Brito, who took the wide-eyed provincial boy to the teeming port city of Santos and told the sceptical directors of the local professional club: This boy will be the greatest player in the world — he has everything.
Within months Pele was the youngest ever Sao Paulo league top scorer, aged 17, and was named in the Brazil squad for the 1958 World Cup. Back in Brazil, Pele continued to bang in the goals for Santos. The major European clubs were all desperate to sign him but the Brazilian military dictatorship declared him to be an official national treasure to prevent him from being transferred out of the country.
Pele played for Brazil at four World Cups but only the 1958 and 1970 tournaments would give him happy memories. At the 1966 World Cup in England, Pele was the victim of some brutal tackling from Bulgarian and Portuguese defenders and left the finals injured and in tears. But the very best of The King was still to come. At the 1970 finals in Mexico, the 29-year-old Pele led Brazil to a third World Cup.
Pele’s scored 1,280 goals in 1,360 games. He holds the world record for hat-tricks (92) and the number of goals scored at international level (97). He was renowned for his sportsmanship, and was never booked let alone sent off.