Pele

Pele doing a bicycle kick. (http://myhero.com/go/hero.asp?hero=pele_Fredericksburg_06)

Pele was best known for being a very famous soccer player that was very good. He helped Brazil accomplish a lot. Brazil won three World Cups in the years 1958, 1962 and 1970. He inspired millions of people around the world and made people not want to miss a game when he played.

Pele was born on October 23, 1940. His real name was Edson Arantes de Nascimiento. His dream was to be a professional soccer player. When he was nine years old he dropped out of school to receive early coaching in soccer from his father. Waldemar de Brito, the manager of Bauru, saw Pele play and put him on the Bauru Junior Soccer Team. Then he became the best club player. In 1956 Waldemar de Brito took Pele to a place called Santos in Brazil. That's where he started his professional career, on the Santos Football Club, which was controlled by the coach Luis Alonzo Perez. When he got to the team he was backup (on the bench), but when it was getting to the end of the year he was a starter for Santos Football Club. Santos won nine Sao Paulo championships between 1958 and 1969 with the soccer maniac (Pele). The president gave Pele appreciation by calling him a national treasure.

He first got the attention of the international soccer world when he was a seventeen year old player on the Brazilian National Team at the finals of the 1958 World Cup championship. Pele couldn't play the second World Cup in 1962, but he still made Santos win against Europe's biggest teams in the Copa Libertadores and in the Intercontinental Cup in 1962 and 1963. His popularity made people angry at the time. Other players were trying to hurt him because he was so good. It got so bad that Pele thought about quitting, but he didn't. Brazil got eliminated in the World Cup of 1966 and the team that eliminated Brazil was England. Then in 1970 Brazil came back and won their third World Cup Championship, something no other country has done.

Pele with the ball showing skill. (http://www.itsalreadysigned4u.com/sports-memorabilia/rdm-pele8x10-2/pele-autographed-soccer-8x10-action-photograph.html)

When Pele was 32 he retired from professional soccer, but he lost a lot of money and he had to return to the field. He signed a contract with the New York Cosmos for 3.5 million dollars in 1975. He was with them for two and a half seasons making them very good. Then a tragedy happened: Pele permanently retired in 1977.

After retirement, he became a spokesperson for many corperations, and he earned thirty million dollars a year. He was also a sports commentator. He was a leading advocate of soccer in the United States, too, and he was a spokesperson for FIFA when the World Cup came to Detroit. Pele got married in a rich and fancy ceremony to his second wife Assira Seixas Lemos. He also did a lot of charity work. He worked for children's causes, including UNICEF. He also talked about starting a school for children in Brazil, and said he would like to coach soccer one day.