1. Pele is perhaps the most prolific footballer in history as he has netted a total of a 1,283 goals and which includes 77 goals on national duty for the Brazilian side.
2. Pele has won three World Cups, nine Sao Paulo State Championships and two World Club Championships.
3. The name Pele is a nick name and his real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimiento as he was named after American inventor Thomas Edison, famous for inventing the light bulb.
4. Pele was signed in 1956 by Santos when he was only fifteen years old and had spent four years in Bauru’s Youth Academy. He actually scored four goals in his debut match on the seventh of September 1956 against FC Corinthians.
5. A great Brazilian forward Waldemar de Brito, is always remembered for discovering Pele, taking him to Santos Football lub, and then telling him at that point that he will be one of the greatest foot ball players in the world
one day.
6. When Pele was only seventeen years old he won his first World Cup, this made him the youngest player to have ever won the World Cup and miraculously he scored two goals in the final match against Sweden.
7. In 1995 Pele was also made the Minister of Sports in Brazil, he served in this post for three years and resigned from it in 1998.
8. In 1999 Pele was also voted to be the Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee.
9. Pele was given the honorary Knighthood by the United Kingdom in 1999.
10. Pele scored his one thousandth goal on the 19th of November 1969, when this happened hundreds of fans rushed onto the field to grace the Brazilian star and it took almost thirty minutes for the field to be cleared
so the match could resume.
11. A Pele Day is celebrated in Santos every year on the19th of November in commemoration of Pele’s one thousandth goal.
12. Pele is still ranked as the fifth highest all time World Cup scorers with the glorious list only containing twelve names and this places him as the second highest Brazilian goal scorer on national duty only behind Ronaldo.
13. The Brazilian Ambassador to the United Nations J.B. Pinheiro commented on Pele’s retirement by saying that the footballer had done more to promote fraternity and friendship between Brazil and the World than any other ambassador
of the country had ever done before.
14. A two day cease fire was declared in 1967 in Nigeria so that the Rebel and Federal troops could watch Pele play a football match.
15. Pele commented in a press conference in 2006 by saying that for the past twenty years people have been asking him the same question that who is the better player Maradona or Pele and every time he answers with the same answer
that the facts are right in front of them and that is that who has score more goals being with the right foot or his head. The total tally of goals and appearances speak louder than words.
16. When Pele moved to the United States and started playing for the New York Cosmos, he was always the main attraction of the match and his opponents had to swap shirts with him after every match just so he could get out of the stadium. Gordon Bradley who
was the team’s manager at the time said that he had to sometimes take twenty five to thirty s***s with Pele’s number on them so he could get out of the stadium alive and in one piece.
Article Continued in Part 2.
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