Pele: biography of a football player and personal life

Pele (in the biography of the football player the name is Edson Arantis do Nascimento) is the most famous Brazilian professional ex-football player who played in the forward position. In society he is considered and recognized as the greatest football player of all time. In 1999, Pele was recognized as the “Best Player of the 20th Century” by the International Federation of Football and Statistics (IFFHS). In the same year, the International Olympic Committee recognized Pele “The best athlete of the century. According to IFFHS statistics, the Brazilian is the most successful scorer in world football. During his career, Pelé scored 1281 goals in 1363 matches (this also includes unofficial friendly matches and demonstration games). The player Pele, whose biography is still being studied and corresponded, was once the highest paid athlete in the world. The Brazilian is a three-time world champion. This is the only indicator in the world that no one could surpass. An article on the biography of the football player Pele in Russian is presented to your attention. About 95% of the world's population knows about it. His game is impossible to forget and stop loving. This is the best football player of the XX century in all football criteria and categories.

Biography of the football player Pele: childhood

He was born on October 23, 1940 in the city of Tres Corazoins (Minas Gerais, Brazil). He was brought up in the family of a football player from the Fluminense club under the nickname Dondinho (the real name of Joao Ramos's father to Nascimento). Mother's name was Celeste Arantes. Pele was the oldest child in the family. In addition to him, there were two more brothers and one sister. Parents wanted to name their son in honor of the famous American inventor Thomas Edison, with only a minor remark - to remove one letter from the name to make Edson. However, a mistake was made when filling out the birth certificate, as a result of which the word “Edison” was written in the document. In the family he was affectionately called the nickname "Wildly." But why Pelé? The fact is that at an early age, Edson was a fan of the Brazilian footballer from Vasco da Gama Bile. When pronouncing his name, he made a speech therapy error, as a result of which “Pele” was heard.

At first, Edson did not like being called that, but the more he got angry, the faster this nickname took root. Nevertheless, talking about his biography, the player Pele said that he did not know where his nickname came from. That is why the debate about where this “Pele” came from is not ceasing in society. Even in Hebrew and Portuguese, the word "Pele" has no lexical meaning, it is just a collection of syllables.

A family

The Pelé family lived in poverty and misery in the city of Bauru, São Paulo. In his youth, the guy worked part-time at various jobs (as a waiter, a seller, a cleaner, etc.) in order to somehow help his parents. The guy did not even have money for a real soccer ball. At one time he played with his toe, in which old newspapers and grapefruit were stuffed. As a teenager, he played for several amateur teams - Sete de Setembo, Canto do Rio, San Paulinho and Americano. Later he began to train in the youth team “Bauru” under the guidance of coach Waldemar de Brito. Also in the biography of football player Pele (see photo below), information is noted that in his youth he played futsal (futsal), played for the Radium team, with which he achieved considerable success.

Mini football

As the footballer himself notes, futsal as a sports game is much more complicated than regular football. Here you need to work much faster than on the grass. Players must make decisions in a fraction of a second to give the pass to a partner or to break through on goal. The complexity of the game is due to the fact that the players are in close proximity to each other, which especially increases the speed and complicates the rhythm of the game. At the age of fourteen, Pelé played indoor soccer in adult teams. At one of the tournaments, he did not pass by age, he was too young. However, somehow he managed to take part in a tournament in which he became the top scorer. This gave him special confidence, because he became the best among the players who are 5 or more years older than him.

Professional football: career for Santos

In 1956, at the age of 15, Pele became a full-fledged player in the Brazilian Santos. The debut took place in the match against Corinthians, where the young striker with the inscription on the Pele T-shirt was scored a goal. Over the entire period of his performance for Santos (from 1956 to 1974) he became the 11-time state champion of São Paulo. It is amazing that all these 11 times he became the top scorer. The season 1957/1958 turned out to be a record - “Goleador” Pele scored 59 goals for the season. As part of Santos, he became the six-time winner of the Brazilian Cup, two-time winner of the Libertadores Cup and two-time winner of the Intercontinental Cup.

Performances for Brazil

The first performance for the Brazilian national team - at the 1958 World Championships in Sweden - turned out to be no less successful than for Santos, given that Pele arrived at this tournament with minor injury. Pele entered the field in the starting lineup against the USSR national team, and in the ¼ finals hit the goal of Wales, recording his first goal for the national team (the goal was decisive in the match). Further more! In the semifinals, the young Brazilian striker simply defused the defense of the French national team and scored a hat-trick, thereby ensuring his team a place in the final. In the final confrontation, the Brazilian team was waiting for the hosts of the tournament. In this fight, the fast-legged Pele took a double and secured the title of the youngest world champion in the history of world football (the record is still valid today).

The only three-time world football champion

On the mundiales of 1962 and 1966, Pele was not able to fully demonstrate his talents due to injuries. The 1970 World Cup (fourth in the biography of the footballer Pele) in Mexico became legendary for Pele and the Brazilian national team. This time, the Brazilian national team became the world champion for the third time in the history of their country, and Pele became the only footballer in the world who managed to become a triumph of the world championship three times (the record holds to this day). In general, Pele played 92 matches for the national team and hit the opponents' goal 77 times. This indicator has been considered the best for over forty years. It is strange that with such an honor and merit, Pelé never took his team to the field as captain of the team.

Performances for the "New York Cosmos"

For "Santos" Pele played from 1956 to 1974. He played for the Brazilian national team from 1957 to 1971. During this time, he managed to become the most skilled, recognizable and simply the best football player in the whole world. In 1975, Pele signed a contract with the American club New York Cosmos from the NASL league. This transfer caused a storm of emotions of the football community, because football in America was just emerging and its level was much lower than in Brazil, in which Pele became the “king of football”. Pelé agreed to play in the Cosmos T-shirt due to financial difficulties (the reason is unscrupulous advisers).

In addition, the football player claimed that he would play for the idea of ​​developing and popularizing football in the United States. A signed contract with New York Cosmos made him the highest paid footballer in the world. The American League Pelé spent only 2 seasons, and during this time the number of spectators and fans in the United States increased 10 times. In 1977, as part of Cosmos, the Brazilian also became the champion of the North American Football League.

Biography of the football player Pele: interesting facts

• Santos had a contract with the organizers of football matches, which stated that if Pele did not enter the field, the club's fee would be 2 times less.
• During the civil war in Nigeria in 1970, the conflicting parties agreed on a two-day truce over the upcoming Santos match in Lagos, in which Pele played.
• After the publication of an autobiographical book entitled “I am Pele”, hundreds of thousands of illiterate Brazilians began to learn to read and write in order to familiarize themselves with the memoirs of a great football player and compatriot (for this Pele was awarded the gold medal that he was awarded by the Brazilian Ministry of Education).
• Pele has a son, Edson, who plays in Santos as a goalkeeper.
• Such documentaries as “The Small Miracle” (1981), “This is Pelé” (1974), “Flight to Victory” (1982), “Tramps and the King of Football” (1986) were shot about the “king of football”. “Pele Forever” (2004), “Pele: The Birth of a Legend” (2016), etc.
• In the Brazilian city of Maceio built a 30-thousandth football stadium, named after Pele - "King Pelé".

Personal life

In the late 1990s, Pele admitted that his first sexual contact was homosexual. According to the “king of football” and the father of seven children, he was only 14 years old, and his partner was much older. The footballer says that this was the only time, arguing that in Brazil this often happens among teenagers, and that this does not determine the future orientation. After this incident, Pele did not return to homosexual contacts, but continued to live with a heterosexual orientation.

In 1966, the Brazilian married Rosemary dos Flight Shelby. In marriage, they had three children: Kelly Christina (born in 1967), Edson (born in 1970) and Jennifer (born in 1978). After 16 years of marriage (in 1982), the couple divorced. In the biography of the football player Pele, the fact emerges that in 1961 the illegitimate daughter Sandra was born from a housekeeper. The fact that Pele is her father was confirmed by DNA expertise.

In 1994, Pele married again, now with Assiria Lemos Seixas. In this marriage, two more children were born - the twins Joshua and Celeste. In 2008, Pele and Assyria divorced.

In the summer of 2016, Pele married for the third time, now Marcia Cibele Aoki, a fifty-year-old Brazilian businesswoman of Japanese descent.

Now you know the biography of football player Pele. The personal life of the legendary athlete was also considered in the article.