Football Legend 2016

[Ariano Waiker]

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Pel began playing for Santos at age 15 and the Brazil national team at 16. During his international career, he won three FIFA World Cups: 1958, 1962 and 1970, the only player to do so and the youngest player to win a World Cup (17). He was nicknamed O Rei (The King) following the 1958 tournament. With 77 goals in 92 games[note 2] for Brazil, Pel held the record as the national team's top goalscorer for over fifty years. At club level, he is Santos's all-time top goalscorer with 643 goals in 659 games. In a golden era for Santos, he led the club to the 1962 and 1963 Copa Libertadores, and to the 1962 and 1963 Intercontinental Cup. Credited with connecting the phrase "The Beautiful Game" with football, Pel's "electrifying play and penchant for spectacular goals" made him a star around the world, and his teams toured internationally to take full advantage of his popularity.[7] During his playing days, Pel was for a period the best-paid athlete in the world. After retiring in 1977, Pel was a worldwide ambassador for football and made many acting and commercial ventures. In 2010, he was named the honorary president of the New York Cosmos.

Averaging almost a goal per game throughout his career, Pel was adept at striking the ball with either foot in addition to anticipating his opponents' movements on the field. While predominantly a striker, he could also drop deep and take on a playmaking role, providing assists with his vision and passing ability, and he would also use his dribbling skills to go past opponents. In Brazil, he was hailed as a national hero for his accomplishments in football and for his outspoken support of policies that improve the social conditions of the poor. His emergence at the 1958 World Cup, where he became a black global sporting star, was a source of inspiration.[8] Throughout his career and in his retirement, Pel received numerous individual and team awards for his performance on the field, his record-breaking achievements, and his legacy in the sport.[9]

Pel grew up in poverty in Bauru in the state of So Paulo. He earned extra money by working in tea shops as a servant. Taught to play by his father, he could not afford a proper football and usually played with either a sock stuffed with newspaper and tied with string or a grapefruit.[17][11] He played for several amateur teams in his youth, including Sete de Setembro, Canto do Rio, So Paulinho, and Ameriquinha.[18] Pel led Bauru Atltico Clube juniors (coached by Waldemar de Brito) to two So Paulo state youth championships.[19] In his mid-teens, he played for an indoor football team called Radium. Indoor football had just become popular in Bauru when Pel began playing it. He was part of the first futsal (indoor football) competition in the region. Pel and his team won the first championship and several others.[20]

According to Pel, futsal (indoor football) presented difficult challenges: he said it was a lot quicker than football on the grass, and that players were required to think faster because everyone is close to each other in the pitch. Pel credits futsal for helping him think better on the spot. In addition, futsal allowed him to play with adults when he was about 14 years old. In one of the tournaments he participated in, he was initially considered too young to play, but eventually went on to end up top scorer with 14 or 15 goals. "That gave me a lot of confidence", Pel said, "I knew then not to be afraid of whatever might come".[20]

When the 1957 season started, Pel was given a starting place in the first team and, at the age of 16, became the top scorer in the league. Ten months after signing professionally, the teenager was called up to the Brazil national team. After the 1958 and the 1962 World Cup, wealthy European clubs, such as Real Madrid, Juventus and Manchester United, tried to sign him in vain.[26] In 1958, Inter Milan even managed to get him a regular contract, but Angelo Moratti was forced to tear the contract up at the request of Santos's chairman following a revolt by Santos's Brazilian fans.[27] Valencia CF also arranged an agreement that would have brought Pel to the club after the 1958 World Cup, however after his performances at the tournament, Santos declined to let the player leave.[28][29] In 1961 the government of Brazil under President Jnio Quadros declared Pel an "official national treasure" to prevent him from being transferred out of the country.[17][30]

Pel states that his most memorable goal was scored at the Estdio Rua Javari on a Campeonato Paulista match against So Paulo rival Clube Atltico Juventus on 2 August 1959. As there is no video footage of this match, Pel asked that a computer animation be made of this specific goal.[41] In March 1961, Pel scored the gol de placa (goal worthy of a plaque), against Fluminense at the Maracan.[42] Pel received the ball on the edge of his own penalty area, and ran the length of the field, eluding opposition players with feints, before striking the ball beyond the goalkeeper.[42] A plaque was commissioned with a dedication to "the most beautiful goal in the history of the Maracan".[43]

During his time at Santos, Pel played alongside many gifted players, including Zito, Pepe, and Coutinho; the latter partnered him in numerous one-two plays, attacks, and goals.[53] After Pel's 19th season with Santos, he left Brazilian football.[54] Pel's 643 goals for Santos were the most goals scored for a single club until it was surpassed by Lionel Messi of Barcelona in December 2020.[55][56]

Even though he never played in a European league, Pel played exhibition games in several countries all over the world in tours with Santos. He played in Spain against Real Madrid and Barcelona, in Italy against Juventus, Inter Milan, AC Milan and AS Roma.[57] Pel travelled to Egypt in 1973, and played with Santos against Al Ahly. This trip was days after his team's trip to Kuwait to play a match against Qadsia.[58]

In Kuwait, Pel met by chance the Egyptian movie star Zubaida Tharwat, who was in Kuwait attending a cinematic event. The two had a couple of photos and he admired her beauty. She said in a television interview about this incident that: she had traveled to Kuwait City in 1973 at the invitation of the Kuwaiti Minister of Culture at the time, and when she went to the hotel where she was going to stay, she was surprised by the presence of many people and flowers inside the hotel, and among these people came to her "Pel" wearing a collar of roses, and he removed it from him and put it on her.[59][60]

When she asked what was going on and who was this person, whom she did not know because she did not like football, the hotel staff told her that he was the famous Brazilian football player, and that the hotel was crowded with his fans who wanted to see him. Zubaida Tharwat stated that after he saw her for the first time inside the hotel where they happened to be, he kept chasing her day and night, and wanted to take her with him to Brazil.[61] By chance, the next stop for Pel's tour was to Cairo, and he met again with Tharwat, who stated that she could not communicate with him as he did not speak English at the time.[62][63]

After the 1974 season (his 19th with Santos), Pel retired from Brazilian club football although he continued to occasionally play for Santos in official competitive matches. A year later, he came out of semi-retirement to sign with the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League (NASL) for the 1975 season.[54] At a chaotic press conference at New York's 21 Club, the Cosmos unveiled Pel. John O'Reilly, the club's media spokesman, stated, "We had superstars in the United States but nothing at the level of Pel. Everyone wanted to touch him, shake his hand, get a photo with him."[64] Though well past his prime at this point, Pel was credited with significantly increasing public awareness and interest of the sport in the US.[65] During his first public appearance in Boston, he was injured by a crowd of fans who had surrounded him and was evacuated on a stretcher.[66]

In 1975, one week before the Lebanese Civil War, Pel played a friendly game for the Lebanese club Nejmeh against a team of Lebanese Premier League stars,[68] scoring two goals which were not included in his official tally.[69] On the day of the game, 40,000 spectators were at the stadium from early morning to watch the match.[68]

It was in the 1958 World Cup that Pel began wearing a jersey with the number 10. The event was the result of disorganization: the leaders of the Brazilian Federation did not allocate the shirt numbers of players and it was up to FIFA to choose the number 10 shirt for Pel, who was a substitute on the occasion.[86] The press proclaimed Pel the greatest revelation of the 1958 World Cup, and he was also retroactively given the Silver Ball as the second best player of the tournament, behind Didi.[83]

Pel also played in the South American Championship. In the 1959 competition he was named best player of the tournament and was the top scorer with eight goals, as Brazil came second despite being unbeaten in the tournament.[83][87] He scored in five of Brazil's six games, including two goals against Chile and a hat-trick against Paraguay.[88]

Pel was the most famous footballer in the world during the 1966 World Cup in England, and Brazil fielded some world champions like Garrincha, Gilmar and Djalma Santos with the addition of other stars like Jairzinho, Tosto and Grson, leading to high expectations for them.[94] Brazil was eliminated in the first round, playing only three matches.[94] The World Cup was marked, among other things, for brutal fouls on Pel that left him injured by the Bulgarian and Portuguese defenders.[95]

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