Edson Arantes do Nascimento popularly known and called Pele is a prominent Brazilian professional footballer. He was born 23 October 1940 and was one of the most successful professional players and league goal scorers in the world with 541 league goals to his credit in his days as a footballer.
On the whole, the number of goals scored by Pele was 1281 in 1363 games, including unofficial tour games and friendlies. No wonder he was listed in the Guinness World Records for most career goals scored in the game of football.
Pele started playing for Santos football club when he was 15 and he joined the National Team of Brazil at the age of 16. He was among the FIFA World Cup Winners in 1958, 1962 and 1970, the only player to have ever done attain this fit. Pele was a star across the world for his penchant and electrifying for spectacular goals.
South American Championship
Apart from playing for Santos club, Pelé also played in the South American Championship and in the tournament of 1959, he was declared the best player of the competition having scored 8 goals and the highest goals in that tournament, even Brazil was beaten to the second position, despite Brazil was not beaten by any team in the competition.
Reception and legacy
With his excellent records as a professional player, Pelé is one of the most celebrated players in history and is often ranked the best player that the game of soccer has ever produced. He was the only player that surpassed the boundaries of logic, even among his contemporaries. Improvisation was said to be his great secret. Pele was dedicated, and had exceptional perception of the game. He was just the greatest and was simply flawless. He was ever smiling on and off the pitch of play he was not bad-tempered at any time.
Pelé played active football for 22 years, and within that period he did more to promote fraternity and world friendship more than any other ambassador anywhere in the world. Pele retired from active football in 1977 and since then he has been an international ambassador for the game of football and had played various acting roles and commercial ventures. For example, he was named the Honorary President of the New York Cosmos in 2010.
The late South African president, Nelson Mandela during the presentation of a lifetime achievement award said that watching Pele play was like watching the delight of a child mixed with the amazing grace of a man in totality. Henry Kissinger however stated that Pele’s performance transcended that of an ordinary star by as much as he exceeded ordinary performance. What a great achievement by a great legend!
