Pele Biography

Introduction:

Edson Arantes doNascimento (also known as Pele) is one of the greatest footballers to ever grace thegame.

Family Life:

Born on October 23 rd,1940, in Três Corações, Brazil, Pele was raised in a poor family with his Mum(Dona Celeste) and his Dad (João Ramos, better known as "Dondinho"). He developed a talent for football by kickinga rolled-up sock stuffed with rags around the streets of Bauru.

Career:

Pelé joined a youthsquad coached by Waldemar de Brito, a former member of the Brazilian nationalfootball team. Pele, who was only 15 at the time, tried out for the Santosprofessional team.

Pele joined the team straightaway and started to train with the regulars. He scored his first professionalgoal of his career before he turned 16 and got recruited the Brazil Nationalteam.

The world was officiallyintroduced to Pelé in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. He was fast, athletic and couldread the game. At 17, Pelé scored threegoals in the 5-2 semi-final win over France.He then scored two more goals in the final, a 5-2 win over the hostcountry, Sweden.

Pelé announced his retirementfrom football in 1974, but decided to return to football the following year toplay for the New York Cosmos in the North American Soccer League.

When Pelé finally retired, he had scored a total of 1,281 goals in 1,363 games.