Pele
Pele was born on 23 October 1940 in Brazil.
- Pelé began his career 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, being the only player ever to do so.
- Pelé is the all-time leading goalscorer for Brazil with 77 goals in 92 appearances.
- At club level he is the record goalscorer for Santos, and led them to the back to back 1962 and 1963 Copa Libertadores.
- According to the IFFHS, Pelé is the most successful domestic league goal-scorer ever in football history scoring 650 goals in 694 League matches, and in total 1281 goals in 1365 games, which included unofficial friendlies and is a Guinness World Record holder.
- During his playing days, Pelé was for a period of time the best-paid athlete in the world.
- While being 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 defenders.
- He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. In 1999, he was voted World Player of the Century by the IFFHS – International Federation of Football History & Statistics.
- He is the joint winner of the FIFA Player Of Century Award alongwith Maradona. Pelé was elected as ”Athlete of the Century” by the International Olympic Committee.
- Since retiring in 1977, Pelé has been a worldwide ambassador for football.
Read about the playing great who’s name initials are L.M. Wonder if you could figure out.
