PELE'S MAGIC FEET
THE KID FROM THE SLUMS WHO EVERYONE LOVED...
Many of us have grown up admiring the kid from the slums with the magical footballing skills and modest demeanor. The Brazil team of 1970 is acknowledged by many as the greatest international team of all-time, with Pele playing a starring role. Sir Geoff Hurst says that Pele was unbelievable to play against – and we’ve all watched clips of him scoring his famous goals and performing innovative pieces of skill. We don’t care what you say about Maradona and Messi – Pele was the great innovator and the only winner of three World Cups. Beat that!
Here are a few things about Pele that you probably don’t know….
HE WAS NAMED AFTER INVENTOR THOMAS EDISON
His real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, named after light-bulb inventor Thomas Edison following the introduction of electricity to his hometown when he was born.
Although he is famously known as Pele now, he did not like his nickname. In a Guardian article in 2006, Pele wrote: “I thought Pele sounded horrible. It was a rubbish name. Edson sounded so much more serious and important.”
He was given the nickname Pele as a kid, after he mispronounced the name of one of his father’s teammates – Vasco de Sao Lourenco, a goalkeeper affectionately known as “Bile”.
HIS FIRST PROFESSIONAL CONTRACT PAID HIM ONLY $10 A MONTH
When he signed his first professional contract with Santos in 1956, Pele was given just US$10 a month as a 15-year-old. He used his pay to purchase a gas stove for his family.
Nineteen years later, he signed a record-breaking three-year US$7 million contract with American outfit New York Cosmos which made him the highest-paid team athlete in the world at that time. Pele had to pay about US$2 million from the contract in taxes to the United States, but gladly obliged.
HIS APPEARANCE CAUSED A CEASEFIRE IN A CIVIL WAR IN 1967
So internationally acclaimed was he that Pele temporarily stopped a civil war in Nigeria in 1967. A 48-hour ceasefire was declared to allow Federal and Rebel troops to watch him play when he visited.
When Pele played for the New York Cosmos, the club had to prepare a shirt for each player on the opposing team for every match due to overwhelming demand.
Gordon Bradley, one of the Cosmos’ coaches at the time, said: “Pele was the main attraction. Sometimes we had to take 25 or 30 shirts with us to a match – otherwise, we’d never have got out of the stadium alive.”
PELE ONCE SERVED AS BRAZIL’S MINISTER FOR SPORT
In 1995, Brazil’s president Fernando Henrique Cardoso appointed Pele as Extraordinary Minister for Sport. During his three-year stint, Pele implemented the “Pele Law” which modernised the country’s sport industry.
The bill mandated all professional local sports clubs to pay tax within two years and liberated teenage athletes from contracts signed with their clubs at a young age.
HE NEVER WON THE BALLON D’OR
Despite his huge achievements, Pele never won the famed world’s best player award, the Ballon d’Or, during his playing days as prior to 1995 the accolade was reserved for only European players.
He was subsequently awarded the honorary Ballon d’Or award by Fifa in 2014.
NOV 19 IS PELE DAY IN BRAZIL
After he scored what was reportedly his 1,000th career goal on Nov 19, 1969 playing for Santos against rivals Vasco da Gama, the Maracana stadium erupted. Play was reportedly halted for half an hour as fans ran onto the pitch to hold him aloft.
Nov 19 is now celebrated in Brazil as Pele Day. There’s no truth in the rumour that Aug 16th is going to be Eric Dier day in England.
Written by Graham Hey