Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known as Pele, is a soccer icon. It is his performances and the records he holds that have forged his legend. While his death, on December 29, 2022, mourned the whole world, we propose you to look back on the career of this genius of the football in 5 figures.
Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known as Pele, was a Brazilian footballer who played as a striker and playmaker from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s.
During his professional soccer career, he played for two clubs: Santos FC from 1957 to 1974 and then Cosmos New York from 1975 to 1977.
The Santos FC was the club dearest to his heart. It was the one where he played for 18 years and scored 643 goals in 660 games.
If Pele became a global soccer icon, it was first for winning the World Cup three times in 1958,1962 and 1970.
In 1958, he was only 17 and a half when he led the Brazilian team to victory for the first time. He then scored a hat-trick in the semi-final and a double in the final, against the host team Sweden.
Still unknown on the international scene at the time, he became the youngest world champion in soccer history at under 18 years old! His precocity is often compared with that of Kylian Mbappé, who became world champion with Les Bleus in 2018 at the age of 19...
During the 1962 World Cup of soccer, he was injured in the second game. But, in 1970 in Mexico, he contributed to the victory of Brazil with four goals on the counter. The team won the final 4 to 1 against Italy and added a third star to its yellow jersey.
One year after the 1970 World Cup, Pele decided to retire from international football. In total, the Brazilian striker participated in 14 World Cup games.
The one nicknamed O Rei (the king) will have marked the spirits as long as he was elusive with the ball and effective against the goalkeepers.
This is evidenced by his record of 12 goals scored with the Seleçao in 14 World Cup games!
Among the many records held by Pele, we must also mention the number of goals scored for the Brazilian team.
Over the course of his career, O Rei earned 92 caps for the Seleçao and scored 77 goals with the Brazilian national team.
This makes him today the top scorer for Brazil equal to Neymar.
And of course, Pele became a soccer legend for scoring an impressive number of goals during his career. Before turning to acting, writing and producing, the elusive Brazilian striker scored no less than 1,281 goals!
It was on November 19, 1969 that he scored his thousandth goal, the Gol mil, from the penalty spot against the Vasco de Gama club. The event takes place at the Maracana, the famous stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the field is invaded by fans.
The total number of goals during his career is truly incredible: 1281 goals in 1363 games! But it should be noted that to reach this record, we also count the goals scored in unofficial games.
If we stick to official games, the number of goals scored is only 767, a figure that has been surpassed by Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi...
King Pele is still a soccer legend for the general public and for the players who have taken him as a model, starting with Kylian Mbappé and Neymar!
Author Loïc on 28 December 2023
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