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Bobby Charlton said football may have been “invented for him”.
Most commentators consider him the best representative of the beautiful game.
Pele’s skill and electrifying speed were paired with deadly precision in front of goal.
A national hero in his native Brazil, he has become a global sports icon.
And, off the pitch, he campaigned tirelessly to improve the living conditions of the poorest people in society.
A young star
Edson Arantes do Nascimento was born on October 23, 1940 in Tres Coracoes, a city in southeastern Brazil.
His birth certificate says he was born on October 21, but Pelé insisted that was incorrect: “In Brazil, we’re not that picky about accuracy.”
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Pelé playing for Brazil in 1960.
It was named after inventor Thomas Alva Edison because, according to Pelé, electricity came to his house just before he did.
Later, her parents removed the “i” from her name.
He grew up in relative poverty in the town of Bauru, and contributed to the family income by working part-time in local cafes.
His father taught him how to play football, but the family could not afford a ball. The young Pelé therefore often hit the street with a padded sock.
Simply “Pele”
It was at school that he was nicknamed Pelé by his friends, although neither he nor any of them had any idea what that meant.
He never liked the nickname very much, feeling that it sounded too much like “baby talk” in Portuguese.
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Pelé was incredibly precise in front of goal.
He started playing for a number of local amateur teams when he was a teenager.
Indoor football was just beginning to become popular in the area, and young Pelé enjoyed the change in the playing surface.
“I took a liking to it like a fish in water”, he will say later. “It’s a lot faster than grass football – you have to think really fast.”
He also led Bauru Athletic Club juniors to three state youth championships, establishing himself as a shining talent.
In 1956, his coach, Waldemar de Brito, took him to the port city of Santos to try out for Santos FC, a professional team.
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Pelé in action for Santos FC.
De Brito is already convinced of his protege’s abilities, bragging to Santos directors that Pele would be the best footballer in the world.
Pelé lived up to his reputation and impressed Santos who offered him a contract in June 1956. He was only 15 years old.
Best striker
A year later, he was selected for Santos’ senior team and scored the first of his many career goals in his debut game.
He quickly won a place in the team and became, in his first year, the top scorer in the championship.
Just ten months after signing as a professional, Pelé is called up by the Brazil national team.
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Pelé was still a teenager when he was first selected to play for Brazil.
He made his international debut against Argentina at the Maracana, where Brazil lost 2-1.
The goal was scored by the then 16-year-old Pele, making him the youngest player to score in an international game.
His hopes of playing for Brazil in the 1958 World Cup seemed to have been dashed when he suffered a knee injury.
But his teammates put pressure on the leaders to select him and he made his World Cup debut against the USSR.
The triple
Inevitably, he becomes the youngest player to score a World Cup goal, scoring a goal for Wales in the quarter-finals.
In the semi-final, Brazil leads 2-1 against France when Pelé scores a hat-trick in the second half to end the game.
He looked like he couldn’t go wrong as he scored twice against Sweden in the final, where Brazil won 5-2.
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Pelé jumps higher than the Swedish goalkeeper in the 1958 World Cup final.
Back in Brazil, Pelé helped Santos win the Sao Paulo championship in 1958, and he ended the season as top scorer.
In 1962 there was a famous win against European champions Benfica.
Pele’s hat-trick in Lisbon sank the Portuguese side and earned the respect of their goalkeeper Costa Pereira.
“I arrived hoping to be able to stop a great man,” he confessed.
“But I came away convinced that I had been defeated by someone who was not born on the same planet as the rest of us.”
A national treasure
The 1962 World Cup would be a disappointment, however, as an injury in a first game sidelined Pelé for the remainder of the tournament.
That’s not stopping a rush of wealthy clubs, including Manchester United and Real Madrid, from trying to sign the man who is already considered the greatest footballer in the world.
Alarmed at the idea of seeing his star go abroad, the Brazilian government declares him a “national treasure” to prevent his transfer.
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Pelé is held aloft after his 1,000th professional goal in 1969.
The 1966 World Cup is a huge disappointment for Pelé and Brazil. Pelé becomes a target and suffers many fouls, especially during the matches against Portugal and Bulgaria.
Brazil do not go beyond the first round, and Pelé’s injuries due to the tackles he suffered do not allow him to play at his best level.
Back home, Santos is in decline and Pele begins to contribute less to his team.
The best team
In 1969, Pelé was almost 30 years old and hesitant to commit to playing for Brazil in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.
He also had to undergo an investigation by his country’s military dictatorship, which suspected him of leftist sympathies.
Eventually, he scored four goals in what was to be his final World Cup appearance, playing for a Brazilian side considered the best team in history.
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Gordon Banks denies Pele with ‘rescue of the century’.
The most famous moment came during the group match against England. His header seems destined for the goal, but Gordon Banks achieves “the save of the century”.
Despite this, Brazil’s 4-1 win over Italy in the final secures them the Jules Rimet Trophy in perpetuity for winning it three times. Pelé, of course, had scored.
His last match for Brazil was on 18 July 1971 against Yugoslavia in Rio, and he retired from Brazilian club football in 1974.
Two years later, he signed with the New York Cosmos. Even if he is no longer at his best, his name is enough to make football known in the United States.
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Pelé lifted the World Cup in 1970. Brazil’s victory earned him the Jules Rimet trophy in perpetuity.
The Ambassador
In 1977, Santos, Pelé’s former club, faced Cosmos in a sold-out game to mark their retirement. He played one half with each team.
Already one of the highest paid sportsmen in the world, Pelé remained a money-making machine after his retirement.
He dabbled in comedy, appearing alongside Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine in the film Escape to Victory (1981).
He completed a number of sponsorship deals and endorsements, with his name still resonating hugely around the world.
In 1992, he was appointed United Nations Ambassador for Ecology and the Environment, then UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.
Five years later, he was made an honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
After being named sports minister by Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso in 1995, Pelé played a leading role in attempts to end corruption in Brazilian football. Pelé’s law, passed in 1998, modernized the governance of sport in the country.
But he left his post at Unesco after being himself accused of corruption, although no evidence was found.
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Pele in the movie “Escape to Victory” (1981).
He played a major role in the success of Rio de Janeiro’s bid for the 2016 Olympics, participating in the closing session of the London 2012 Games for the handover in Rio.
In 2005, he received a lifetime achievement award at the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year event.
Pelé married Rosemeri dos Reis Cholbi in 1966, and the couple had two daughters and a son. They divorced in 1982, after Pelé was linked to model and movie star Xuxa.
He married a second time with a singer, Assiria Lemos Seixas. The couple had twins but later separated.
In 2016, he married Marcia Cibele Aoki, a Japanese-Brazilian businesswoman, whom he first met in 1980.
Some claimed that other children were born of their affairs, but the star firmly refused to acknowledge them.
In recent years, the star has often had health problems. In September 2021, he had a colon tumor removed and he underwent chemotherapy for over a year before his death.
But he met these challenges with typical good humor. In an Instagram post before he last entered the hospital in November 2022, the star joked that he was showing up for his “monthly visit”.
He also thanked the organizers of the Qatar World Cup, where a building was lit up with the words: “Get well, Pelé”.
A global brand
Pele’s name is immediately recognized by those who are uninterested in or unfamiliar with football.
He even joked once that there were only three truly international brands: Jesus, Coca-Cola and Pelé.
Later in life he struggled to overcome the effects of hip surgery: he appeared in a wheelchair and was often unable to walk.
But in his prime, his athleticism delighted millions and his innate talent earned him the respect of teammates and opponents.
The great Hungarian striker Ferenc Puskas refused to even classify Pelé as just a player. “Pelé was above that,” he said.
But it was Nelson Mandela who probably best summed up what made Pelé such a star.
“To watch him play was to observe the pleasure of a child combined with the extraordinary grace of a man”.