Pele

Pele (http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ni-Pe/Pel.html (Archive Photos, Inc.))

On October 24th, 1940, the soccer legend Pele was born in Tres Coracoes. As a child, Pele had always watched his father play, as he was a professional player until he had a serious knee injury, and gave up. When Pele was 15 years old, he left home to go play for his first professional club, Santos. He had started practicing with the teams starting eleven as soon as he was recruited. His first professional goal came when he was only 15, and he had was the top goal scorer in the Brazilian League.

In 1958, the 17 year old played in his first World Cup. He scored three goals against France, making the final score 5-2, and scored two more in the finals against Sweden, the World Cup hosts, to make the score 5-2. Also in 1958, Santos won the Campeonato Paulista, Pele's first major title.

In the 1962 World Cup, Pele had gotten a groin injury only 2 games into the World Cup, and had to sit out for the rest of it. But after Brazil had won the World Cup, Pele had gotten offers from clubs like Manchester United, Juventus, and Real Madrid, but the governor of Brazil had claimed Pele as a "national treasure" making it impossible for him to go to another club outside of Brazil.

Pele stayed at Santos winning many titles and scoring over 1000 goals in his career until 1974, when he semi-retired, but would still play in some competitive matches for Santos. However, in 1975, Pele came out of retirement and went to play in the NASL (North American Soccer League) for the New York Cosmos. Although he was way past his prime, he still interested the United States in soccer. In 1977, Pele led the New York Cosmos to get the NASL championship. Pele played his last game in 1977 on October 1st against Santos. He played the first half for New York and the second half for Santos and scored the winning goal for New York off of a freekick.

Pele continues to inspire many people today, and will forever be my hero and many others hero.