Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé, was born on October 23, 1940 in the city of Três Corações (Brazil).
Pelé was the oldest son of his parents João Ramos de Nascimento and Celeste Arantes.
Despite being born in Minas Gerais, Pelé spent his childhood in Bauru, a city in the interior of the state of São Paulo.
His family was very poor and after his father fractured his foot and was forced to stop working, Pelé, as a child, had to start working to bring some money home and be able to help his parents.
Within his family he was nicknamed Dico but it was at school that his friends nicknamed him Pelé due to the way he pronounced the name of his favorite football player.
Pelé started playing football from a young age on the street with his friends playing football and "his coach" was his father.
During his childhood Pelé played for several amateur teams, such as 7 de Setembro, Canto do Rio, São Paulinho and Americinha.
His history in football really in the youth team of Bauru.
At that time, futsal had just arrived in his city and was not so popular, so Pelé started playing futsal and soon won the 1st championship he had.
As time went by Pelé's football evolved and more and more people were commenting on his talent.
His talent was so great that Pelé, at the age of 14, was already playing tournaments with much older people in the seniors.
Although many thought he was too young to be playing in senior tournaments, Pelé ended the tournament with the best scorer with 14-15 goals (at the time there was no very strict record about this).
In 1999, due to all the prominence that Pelé always had in futsal and also due to scoring a lot of goals, he was called to go and test Santos FC.
In this test Pelé impressed all those responsible for Santos and ended up signing a contract and becoming a professional football player.
On September 7, 1956, the only 15-year-old made his debut for Santos in a game against Corinthians de Santo André.
In this game he scored his 1st career goal.
In the 1957 season, Pelé had the chance to start as a starter and he did not disappoint, ending the season as the championship's top scorer.
Ten months after signing with Santos, Pelé receives his first call to represent the selection of Brazil.
In the 1958 season, Pelé wins his 1st Paulista championship, that is, his 1st official title at Santos' services. Pelé was again the league's top scorer with 58 goals.
At the end of this season Pelé was summoned to represent Brazil in the World Cup. Despite being hurt shortly before the Worlds, the coach decided to take him anyway.
It was in the 2nd game against Wales that Pelé showed his talent to the world. In this game he scored his 1st goal for the national team.
Pelé and Brazil won the title of champion of this World Cup.
At the end of the World Cup, the French press started calling Pelé "King of Football".
In the 1960 season, Pelé again won the title of champion of the Paulista championship having scored 47 goals.
In the 1961 season, Santos won the Brazilian championship for the first time in its history, which at the time was called the Brazilian Cup.
Pelé was the league's top scorer with 9 goals scored.
In the 1962 season, Pelé won the Brazilian championship again, having scored 37 goals.
This season he also wins the Club World Cup in a 5-2 game against Benfica, with 3 of the 5 goals scored by Pelé.
At the end of this season Pelé is called up again to represent Brazil in the World Cup.
However, he is injured in the 2nd game, being left out of the rest of the competition, but despite this Brazil wins the title of champion again, becoming two world champions.
After the World Cup, several European teams (Manchester United, Juventus and Real Madrid) tried to sign Pelé but despite the rumors that were appearing he continued at Santos.
In the 1963 season, Pelé again won the Libertadores Cup in a final against Boca Juniores.
This season Santos also won the Paulista championship, the Brazilian championship for the 3rd consecutive time and the Club World Cup for the 2nd consecutive time, beating AC Milan in the final.
In the 1964 season, Santos did not achieve the desired 2nd consecutive title in the Libertadores Cup, but they won the Paulista championship again with Pelé becoming the championship's top scorer again. In addition, they were also champions of the Brazilian championship for the 4th consecutive time.
In the 1966 season, Pelé was called to play in the England World Cup with the expectation of winning the 3rd title. However, Brazil failed to win it.
In the 1967 season, Pelé won the Paulista championship again.
This year Santos decided to do an internship on the African continent but at that time there was a civil war in Nigeria that had lasted for more than two years.
The wars agreed to cease fire for 48 hours in order to see Santos and Pelé play.
In the 1968 season, Pelé won the Paulista championship for the second time in a row.
In the 1969 season, Pelé and Santos won the title of champion of the Paulista championship for the third consecutive time.
On the 19th of December Pelé reached the mark of 100 goals in his career, something that very few achieved in his career and this is much awaited not only by Santos fans but by everyone in Brazilian football.
In the 1970 season, Pelé, aged 3, is summoned to compete in his 4th and final World Cup.
Before starting the World Cup due to a change of coach, it was thought that Pelé could stay as a substitute. However, this did not happen, Pelé was the starter, and showed all his quality.
Brazil beat Italy in the fianl 4-1 to become champions.
The 1971 season was marked by being Pelé's last season with the Brazilian jersey.
On July 18, 1971, Pelé said goodbye to the Brazilian team in a game played at the Maracaná stadium with 145k people in the stands.
The 1974 season was marked by the farewell of Pelé of Santos.
However, Pelé did not finish his career, but in the following season he went to play for New York Cosmos, an MLS League team.
Pelé ended his career playing in the MLs in 1977.
Pelé as a player did not win the Ballon d'Or due to the fact that this prize could only be won by players who were in European football at the time.
In 2017, France Football decided to revise its list and ended up assigning 7 Ballon d'Or to Pelé and making him the player with the most gold balls ever.
In the total of his career Pelé played 1367 games and scored 1282 goals.
