Pele Pele

early years Edson Arantes do Nascimento  who is known as Pele was born on either October 21 or 23, 1940 to João Ramos do Nascimento nicknamed Dondinho and Celeste Arantes. He was nicknamed Pele during his school days, he was given this name because of his pronunciation of his favourite player which he misspoke. Pele said that he and his friends had no idea what Pele meant. Pele grew up in poverty in Bauru, he earned extra money by working in tea shops as a servant. His father taught him how to play soccer, because he could not afford for a proper ball, he usually played with either a sock stuffed with newspaper and tied with a string or he played with a grapefruit.

Soccer Career During his career he became known as the King of Soccer. Pele started playing for Santos at the age 15 and the Brazil National Football Team at 16. He won three Fifa World Cups, 1958, 1962 and 1970. In his whole career he scored 1281 goals in 1363. During his playing days, Pele was for a period the best-paid athlete in the world. In 1999 he was voted World Player of the Century. During Pele’s Youth career he played for Bauru from 1953 to 1956. During Pele’s Senior Career he played for Santos 1956 to 1974, then moved to New York Cosmos and played from 1975 to 1977. He scored 619 goals when playing for Santos, For New York Cosmos he scored 31 goals