Edson Arantes do Nascimento (
Brazilian
Portuguese: , better known as
Pelé (
Brazilian Portuguese: , name given as
Edison
on birth certificate, born 21 October 1940 – however, Pelé himself claims that
he was born on 23 October
, is a retired
Brazilian footballer.
He is regarded by many experts, football critics, former players, current
players and football fans in general as the best player of all time.In 1999, he
was voted
Football Player of the Century by the
International Federation of Football History &
Statistics (IFFHS).
In the same year French weekly
magazine
France Football
consulted their former
Ballon D'Or
winners to elect the Football Player of the Century. Pelé came in first place. Pelé was elected "Athlete
of the Century" by the
International
Olympic Committee and
Reuters News Agency in
1999, and by French newspaper
L'Équipe in 1981. During his playing days
Pelé was for a period the best paid athlete in the world.
According to the
International Federation of Football History &
Statistics (IFFHS) he is the most successful league goal scorer in
the world, with 541 league goals. In total Pelé scored 1281 goals in 1363
games. In his native Brazil, Pelé is hailed as a national hero.
He is known for his
accomplishments and contributions to the game of football.
He is also acknowledged for
his vocal support of policies to improve the social conditions of the poor
(when he scored his 1,000th goal he dedicated it to the poor children of
Brazil).
During his career, he became
known as "The Black Pearl" (
Pérola Negra), "The King of
Football" (
O Rei do Futebol), "The King Pelé" (
O Rei
Pelé) or simply "The King" (
O Rei).
He was trained since birth to become great by his father, mentor and former
footballer (who was the top scorer in every season he played for, for every
team)
Dondinho. Later spotted, at
Bauru Atlético
Clube, by football star
Waldemar de Brito,
Pelé began playing for
Santos at 15 and his national team at 16,
and won his first
World Cup at
17. Despite numerous offers from European clubs, he could not leave Brazil
because of a law keeping him there. In 1961 President
Jânio Quadros had Pelé declared a national
treasure, thus enabling
Santos to keep Pelé
for almost two decades until 1974. With Pelé within their ranks, Santos reached
their zenith by winning the
1962
and
1963 Copa Libertadores, the most prestigious
club competition in South American football.
In 1962 Santos became the
first football club ever to win four out of four competitions in a single year,
thus achieving
the
quadruple.
Pelé’s electrifying play and
penchant for spectacular goals made him a star around the world. His team
Santos toured internationally in order to take full advantage of his
popularity. Pelé played most of his career as a deep-lying forward. Pelé's
technique and natural athleticism have been universally praised and during his
playing years he was renowned for his excellent
dribbling and passing, his pace, powerful
shot, exceptional heading ability, and prolific goalscoring.
He is the all-time leading scorer of the
Brazil
national football team and is the only footballer to be a part of
three World Cup-winning squads.
Torres is a Spanish international and made his debut against
Portugal in 2003. He has been capped over 100 times and is his country's
third-highest goalscorer of all time. With Spain he has participated in five
major tournaments; UEFA Euro 2004, the 2006 FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro 2008, the
2010 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2012. Spain won the latter three tournaments,
with Torres scoring in the finals of both Euro 2008 and Euro 2012.