Pele, Edson Arantes do Nascimento , a Brazilian legend
At the club level he shattered records in Brazil; 127 goals for Santos F.C. in 1959, 110 in 1961 and 101 goals in 1965, and led the club to two World Club championships. Pelé also holds the world record for hat tricks (92) and the number of goals scored on the international level (97). His statistics are all the more amazing when compared to today's top players who can barely score more that 30 goals in a season. He was raised by Dondinho and Celeste Nascimento as a poor family from Tres Coracos, Brazil. Dondinho, pele’s father, was a football player, a good center foreward, until he fractured his leg.
“Dico” which was the family nickname for Pele, took inspiration from his father. After having made Brazil's 100th World Cup goal in the 1970 world championship, mexico, he said: "I have a special feeling for that goal because I scored it with my head," he said. "My father was a soccer player and once scored five goals in a game, all with his head. That was one record I was never able to break."
The Brazilian top goalscorer began playing soccer in his teenages at the age of 11. He was playing in a local minor league club when he was “discovered” by Waldemar de Brito one of the country’s premier league players. He was brought to Sao Paulo and the team of Santos. He scored his first goal in his first match against Corinthians F.C at the young age of 16.
At the age of 17 he stunned the world by scoring 6 goals in the 1958 world championship helping Brazil to take their first star of today’s five.
At the 1962 and 1966, Pele was victim to injuries which prevented him from aiding his team to glory. In 1970, in Mexico, he was back more powerful than ever and led one of the greatest teams ever assembled to win Brazil's third World Cup.
The national hero of Brazil retired from soccer in 1974, but came back to play two seasons in the North American Soccer League for a 7 million dollar contract over three years. Pele’s entrance into the USA led to the birth of American soccer awareness.
His last performance was an exhibition game between the Cosmos and Santos, was sold out six weeks beforehand, covered by 650 journalists and broadcast in 38 nations.
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