Pele: the greatest footballer ever?
The Brazilian football legend, Pele, is widely hailed as the greatest football player to ever play the game. Over an illustrious career spanning two decades, he managed to help Brazil win the World Cup three times, scored over
a thousand goals, led his club team to the highest honour in Brazil and became a national hero in the process. His greatness comes from not only his immense goal scoring record but also from the fact that he was a great leader of his team, a true sportsman
and a vocal supporter of improving conditions for the poor. Over the years he has won the largest number of accolades possible in football and was also named as the FIFA Player of the Century along with Maradona. While playing the game, Pele managed to make
Brazil the international football powerhouse that it is today.
Pele, like other great sports stars, started playing the sport that made him famous at a very young age. The Brazilian legend’s actual name is Edison Arantes do Nascimento and he started playing football while very young and was
actually spotted by another Brazilian great, Waldemar de Brito. Pele’s first foray into the sport came with him playing for Brazilian club side Santos at the age of 15. The next year he made his debut for the national football team, and by the time he was
17 years old he had won his first World Cup. Pele wowed everyone who saw him play and despite a lot of interest and serious offers from European clubs at the time, he decided to stay with Santos. He led the club to two Copa Libertadores victories in 1963 and
1964. He scored over a thousand goals in 1120 appearances for Santos, making him the highest goal scorer in the club’s history. The fact that he scored a total of 1281 goals in his entire career makes him the greatest goal scorer ever.
Pele was known for his natural athletic abilities, his superb dribbling and passing skills and his ability to score some of the best goals that were ever seen in the game. He was also known for his pace and he was constantly able
to outrun the best players in the world. His goal scoring ability and skills with the ball made him a forerunner to all the players today who wow crowds with their fancy footwork and ability to fool defenders. They were all preceded by the great Brazilian
and he showed the world what a striker was able to do. His goal scoring record is second to none and he has enough goal scoring records to fill a book. He retired from the game of football as the sport’s highest goal scorer and as many people have said over
the years: the greatest player of all time.
Over time, he developed a rivalry with another extremely talented player who is also in the running for greatest footballer of all time accolade: Diego Maradona. It did not help their grievances when the two of them were awarded
the FIFA Player of the Century together. Debates still rage today as to who is the better footballer and many of the older generation argue it is Pele, while the younger generation leans towards the Argentinean.
What exactly makes a footballer great? Well in the simplest terms, football is about scoring goals in order to help your team win. Yes, the game is about a lot of other factors as well and this in no way implies that the job of
defenders and goalkeepers is any less important; but at the end of the day the only way to win a football match is to score more goals than the other team. If we look at this deciding factor, then Pele with his huge number of goals comes out on top and must
surely be crowned the greatest of all time. But football is a game of passions and people will always debate this issue as long as the game is played.
Pele is still very much a part of football and he is currently the honorary president of the New York Cosmos football team. Even though the debate rages on about whether he is the greatest football player of all time, he was the
best football player of his time and has inspired a legion of players to follow in his footsteps. With his focus now on humanitarian work and helping others, this great man looks all set to become the finest asset the game of football has ever produced.
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