Pele Facts

Interesting Pele Facts

This page is dedicated to Pele Facts to remind people of all of his achievements.

Pele is a name recognized in soccer all around the world. He was regarded as the best soccer player that ever lived. Years after his retirement from professional soccer, Pele is still regarded as one of the best players that ever lived and played this game.

Today, soccer is played with much higher intensity, and players like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and few others dominate the world of soccer today.

Stars of today are compared to the old legends, like Pele, on a regular basis.

Every generation brings new soccer players who dominate each generation, however many of these players are forgotten shortly after they retire.

Some players leave a mark on this sport, and they are remembered forever by all future generations.

There are very few players like that, and Pele is certainly one of them.

Interesting Facts about Pele

Pele's real name is Edison Arantes do Nascimento. He was named after the American inventor Thomas Edison.

Pele is the only player to win 3 World Cup titles with Brazil, and 10 Brazil Championships for Brazilian team Santos.

Pele has scored a total of 1,283 goals during his illustrious career, with 77 of the goals for national team Brazil.

He was only 15 years old when he signed his professional contract for Santos, scoring 4 goals in his league debut on September 7th, 1956 against FC Corinthians.

Pele was discovered, and brought to Santos, by another great Brazilian player Waldemar de Brito. He later said "Pele will be the greatest football player in the world".

Interesting Pele fact is at 17 years old, he won his first World Cup title, and is the youngest player to do so.

In 1995, Pele was appointed as Minister of Sport in Brazil, which he served until 1998.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted in 1999, selecting Pele as the athlete of the century.

Pele is also a knight, as he was knighted by the British in 1997.

Fun fact about Pele's career is his 1000th goal on November 19th, 1969. It took 30 minutes for the game to resume, after fans stormed the field to celebrate this historic event of Pele's career with him.

Interesting Pele fact include a Pele holiday, as every year on the 19th of November, Santos celebrate "Pele Day" in honor of his 1000th goal anniversary.

Pele is the 5th leading all time World Cup scorer for Brazil.

In 1967, 48 hour ceasefire was declared in Nigeria, so that both the Rebel and Federal troops could watch Pele play on a visit to war torn Nigeria.

Towards the end of his career, Pele came to play for New York Cosmos, in United States. All his opponent players wanted to swap shirts with him after the match, and because he only had one shirt on him at the time, New York Cosmos started to bring 20-30 Pele shirts for his opponents in future matches.

Pele has helped charitable organizations, such are Great Ormond Street and Harlem Street Soccer, raise millions of dollars for their cause. 

On August 1st, 2010, Pelé was introduced as the Honorary President of a revived New York Cosmos.

Funny Pele fact is his saying that "A penalty is a cowardly way to score".

"How do you spell Pelé?", the Times of London once declared, "G-O-D".

Interesting soccer fact about Pele and Maradona is that they are hardly friends. Pele once said of the Argentinian: “He is not a good example for the youth. He had the God-given gift of being able to play football, and that is why he is lucky."

Maradona's response was: “Who cares what Pele says? He belongs in a museum.”

Interesting Pele fact about his famous nickname.

His family nicknamed him "Dico" when he was growing up. He did not get the nickname Pele until he started schooling. During his school days, he used to pronounce the name of the local Vasco da Gama goalkeeper Bile, as Pile. Hence, a classmate of his gave him the nickname Pele.

Pele's father once scored five headed goals in one game, a feat that Pele was never able to replicate. The most headers Pele ever scored in a game was four.

Pele's header for Brazil, in the 1970 World Cup final, was their 100th World Cup goal.

Since April 1994, Pelé has been married to psychologist and gospel singer Assíria Lemos Seixas.

Interesting fact about Pele is that he has always tried to be a role model for the youth. He once said "Every kid around the world, who plays soccer, wants to be Pele. I have a great responsibility to show them, not just how to be a soccer player, but how to be a man."

Pele's say on achievement:

"Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do."

Fun Pele fact is that he is mentioned in the song "Ghetto Superstar" by rapper Pras.

In 2000, Pele was named second in the BBC's "Sportsman of the Century" award. Boxing legend Muhammad Ali came first.

Tarcisio Burgnich, Italian defender who marked Pelé in the 1970 World Cup Finals said after the game:

"I told myself before the game, he's made of skin and bones just like everyone else — but I was very wrong."

Interesting Pele fact is in Brazil he is often called "Perola Negra" which means "Black Pearl".

The Brazilian government declared Pelé an official national treasure in 1961, to prevent him from being transferred out of the country.

In 1993, Pele was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Pele facts continue with his New York Cosmos transfer. To persuade Pele to sign for the New York Cosmos in 1975, Clive Toye, the team's general manager said:

"Don't go to Italy, don't go to Spain, all you can do is win a championship. Come to the U.S. and you can win a country."

Funny Pele fact is that his first soccer team was formed with a bunch of friends from his neighborhood, and they called themselves "The Shoeless Ones".

In Brazil, Coca-Cola sponsors a Pele museum on wheels, that travels throughout the country.

"Pele is the greatest player in football history, and there will only be one Pele" is a statement Cristiano Ronaldo made about Pele.

Interesting fact about Pele is that he is the only player that was part of three different World Cup winning teams.

Pele facts continue with Pele scoring 8 goals in one match on November 21st, 1964 as Santos destroyed Botafogo 11-0.

Fun Pele fact is that he managed to score 92 hat-tricks, four goals on 31 occasions, five goals on six occasions, and once scored eight goals in the same match.

Pele was poor when he was a boy. As a boy, Pele used to play with a sock stuffed with paper, as he could not afford to buy a football.

Fact about Pele on winning: "If you are first, you are first. If you are second, you are nothing."

Pele has worked as a UNICEF Goodwill ambassador, and as a United Nations ambassador, to protect the environment and fight corruption in Brazil.

His last international game for Brazil was a 2-2 draw against Yugoslavia on July 18th, 1971.

On October 1st, 1977, Pele played his last game as a professional soccer player. He played the first half of the game for the New York Cosmos, and the second half for his Brazilian team Santos.

Pele interesting facts continue with Brazil never loosing a game when Pele and the legendary Garrincha played together.

Pele scored Brazil's 100th World Cup goal with his head.

Fun Pele fact includes having a video-game made and named after him. The game was released in 1980s and was called Pele's Soccer.

MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter Jose Landi-Jons was nicknamed "Pelé".

Dutch artist Dick Brynestein made a drawing of Pele, naming it Pietje Pele.

Interesting Pele fact is that his presence in the USA boosted average attendance across the league by almost 80 percent.

Pele scored his first career hat trick with Santos on June 9th, 1957, in a match against Lavras.

Pele facts continue with his first appearance for American Team New York Cosmos on June 5, 1975 against Dallas Tornadoes. He scored a goal on his debut, with the game ending in a 2-2 draw.

Pele acted in Escape to Victory, a World War II drama about a team of prisoners who play their Nazi captors in a football match. Unsurprisingly, he played the team's star attacker, Corporal Luis Fernandez, who hailed from Trinidad and Tobago.

Funny fact about Pele in 2005, he fronted an advertising campaign for the drug Viagra. He was widely credited for breaking the taboo on speaking or receiving treatment for erectile dysfunction.

American forward Edson Buddle is named after the great Brazilian.

"I thought naming him Pele would be too much pressure," his dad revealed. "Edson not many people would know."

As he prepared for kick off in a game during 1970 World Cup, Pele gestured to the referee that he needed to tie his laces. Cameras panned in to reveal the forward's Puma boots. Puma experienced a huge sales boost after that.

Interesting fact about Pele is the fact that he has never liked his nickname, saying that it sounds like "baby-talk".

Pele's 1000th goal was a penalty.

In 2001, on Pele's birthday, the world got its first glimpse at one of the defining gadgets of the modern era — the iPod.

For more Pele Facts visit 70 Facts about Brazilian Legend Pele.

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