Pelé's first job was shining shoes. But he had always dreamed of playing soccer.

Pelé's soccer career started early. After playing in a few amateur teams like Baquinho and Sete Setembro, at the age of 11, while playing for an uncoached team called Ameriquinha, he was discovered by a former Brasilian World Cup player named Waldemar de Brito. De Brito recognized Pelé's skills and invited him to join the team he was organizing (Clube Atlético Baurú?). When Pelé was fifteen, in 1956, de Brito took him to the city of São Paulo to try out for the professional club called Santos Futebol Clube (SFC). That day, de Brito told the team directors that "This boy will be the greatest soccer player in the world."

Pelé's first show came on September 7, 1956, when he played in place of the center forward Del Vecchio. He came into the game to score the sixth of the seven goals in the 7-1 Santos victory. He scored his goal on the 36th minute, in a play between Raimundinho and Tite. The ball was given to Pelé in the box, and even though he was surrounded by defenders, he shot on goal and the ball went under goalkeeper Zaluar's body. Zaluar became famous as the first goalkeeper to take a goal from the great Pelé. From there, the trip to the summit was fast. In his first league game with Santos, he scored four goals. The next season, he was a regular starter and came out score leader of the São Paulo state league, with 32 goals.

-Pelé
Peles Homepage.

In 1993, Pelé was inducted to the United States Soccer Hall of Fame. After a trip to Lima, Peru, to play a game, an inscription was placed on the stadium wall: "Here played Pelé". Once he even stopped a war in Nigeria: A 48-hour armistice was signed with Biafra so that both sides could go watch Pelé play a round of exhibition matches. When he left the national team on July 18, 1971, 200,000 people grieved in the monumental Maracanã, and he gave his historic number 10 jersey to a ten-year-old boy.

Pelé is the only person to have won three world cups as a player (1958, 1962, and 1970), and scored 1,281 (or 1284) goals in 1,363 professional games, which is probably the all-time record in soccer. That's a lifetime goal average of 0.93 goals per game. In 1959 he established the Paulist (São Paulo) league goal-scoring record for one season - 126 goals. On November 21, 1964, he scored eight goals in one game against Botafogo of Rio de Janeiro. On November 19, 1969, he scored his famous 1,000th goal from a penalty kick on the 34th minute of the game against Vasco da Gama and dedicated it "...para as criancinhas pobres do Brasil...." (to the poor little children of Brasil) and to the elderly and suffering peoples of Brasil. Pelé also participated in what is known to be the "Golden Age" of the Libertadores Cup from 1960 to 1963, during which the great Uruguayan team Peñarol faced the legendary Santos for the final games. Peñarol won in 1960 and 61, while Santos took the championship the other two years.

Pelé defined the role of the playmaker/midfielder type. He led some of the greatest Brasilian players of all time - Vavá, Didi, Garrincha, and others. Many said Pelé would have been the best in any position he played. Pelé once insisted to the manager of Santos that he play goalkeeper. On January 19, 1964, he substituted Santos goalkeepr Gilmar, who had been ejected, in the semi-final game of the Brasil Cup. For five minutes, after scoring three goals, Pelé played with the number one jersey and made two spectacular saves that saved Santos the spot in the finals.

"Aos 21 minutos de jogo, quando Pelé, inesperadamente, pegou a bola com as mãos, ajoelhou-se no meio do gramado e ergueu os braços, a torcida que estava em Vila Belmiro não pôde negar-se a um momento de surpresa. Mas, foi apenas um momento. Logo, ela compreendeu que Pelé estava determinando o final de sua carreira de maior jogador de futebol de todos os tempos"

[At the 21st minute, when Pelé unexpectedly picked the ball up with both hands, kneeled in the middle of the field, and raised his arms, the crowd at Vila Belmiro had a minute of surprise. But, it was only a minute. Soon the crowd understood that Pelé was determining the end of his career as the best soccer player of all time.]

This was the end of Pelé's career with the striped Santos jersey. After that the great Pelé was brought to the United States by the New York Cosmos in an attempt to popularize the sport in the country. And one thing Pelé could do perfectly was popularize anything he wanted with his grandness, talent, and universal image.



Sources: A Tribuna de Santos, Umbro Preferred Players' Club Magazine, Soccer! The Game and the World Cup, Rizzoli, New York, and Peles Homepage, Carlos Santoro.