In 1999, he was voted Football Player of the Century by the IFFHS International Federation of Football History and Statistics.
In the same year French weekly magazine France-Football consulted their former "Ballon D'Or" winners to elect the Football Player of the Century. Pelé came in first position.
In 1999 the International Olympic Committee named Pelé the "Athlete of the Century".
In his career he scored 760 official goals, 541 in league championships, making him the top scorer of all time. In total Pelé scored 1281 goals in 1363 games.
Pelé began playing for Santos at 15 and his national team at 16, and won his first World Cup at 17.
He is the all-time leading scorer of the Brazil national football team and is the only footballer to be a part of three World Cup-winning squads.
Aged 16, Pelé made his debut for Santos in 7 September 1956, scoring one goal in a 7–1 friendly victory over Corinthians. When the 1957 season started, Pelé was given a starting place in the first team and, at the age of 16, became the top scorer in the league.
Pelé won his first major title with Santos in 1958 as the team won the Campeonato Paulista; Pelé would finish the tournament as top scorer with 58 goals, a record that stands today.
In 1960, Pelé scored 33 goals to help his team regain the Campeonato Paulista trophy but lost out on the Rio-São Paulo tournament after finishing in 8th place. Another 47 goals from Pelé saw Santos retain the Campeonato Paulista
Santos' most successful club season started in 1962; the team was seeded in Group 1 alongside Cerro Porteño and Deportivo Municipal, winning every match of their group but one (a 1–1 away tie vs Cerro), with Pelé scoring his first goal in a brace against Cerro. Santos defeated Universidad Católica in the semifinals and met defending champions Peñarol in the finals in which Pelé scored another brace in the playoff match to secure the first title for a Brazilian club. Pelé finished as the second best scorer of the competition with 4 goals. That same year, Santos would defend, with success, the Campeonato Brasiliero (with 37 goals from Pelé), the Taça Brasil (Pelé scoring four goals in the final series against Botafogo), and win the 1962 Intercontinental Cup against Benfica. Wearing his iconic number 10 shirt, Pelé produced one of his best ever performances and scored a hat-trick in Lisbon, as Santos beat the European champions 5–2.
His first match in the World Cup was against the USSR in the first round of the 1958 FIFA World Cup, on the third game of the Cup, alongside Garrincha, Zito and Vavá.
He was the youngest player of that tournament, and at the time the youngest ever to play in the World Cup.He scored his first World Cup goal against Wales in quarterfinals, the only goal of the match, to help Brazil advance to semifinals, while becoming the youngest ever World Cup goalscorer at 17 years and 239 days. Against France in the semifinal, Brazil was leading 2–1 at halftime, and then Pelé scored a hat-trick, becoming the youngest in World Cup history to do so.
On 19 June 1958 Pelé became the youngest player to play in a World Cup final match at 17 years and 249 days. He scored two goals in the final as Brazil beat Sweden 5–2. His first goal, a lob over a defender followed by a precise volley shot, was selected as one of the best goals in the history of the World Cup. Following Pelé's second goal, Swedish player Sigvard Parling would later comment; "When Pelé scored the fifth goal in that Final, I have to be honest and say I felt like applauding".
In the first match of the 1962 World Cup, against Mexico, Pelé assisted the first goal and then scored the second one, after a run past four defenders, to go up 2–0. He injured himself while attempting a long-range shot against Czechoslovakia.
The 1966 World Cup was marked, among other things, for the brutal fouling on Pelé, by the Bulgarian and Portuguese defenders. By this stage Pelé was the most famous footballer in the world, and the expectation was that Brazil, at the very least, would reach the final. Brazil was eliminated in the first round, playing only three matches. Pelé scored the first goal from a free kick against Bulgaria, becoming the first player to score in three successive FIFA World Cups, but due to his injury, a result of persistent fouling by the Bulgarians, he missed the second game against Hungary.
Pelé was called to the national team in early 1969, he refused at first, but then accepted and played in six World Cup qualifying matches, scoring six goals. The 1970 World Cup in Mexico was to be Pelé's last. Brazil's squad for the tournament featured major changes in relation to the 1966 squad. Players like Garrincha, Nilton Santos, Valdir Pereira, Djalma Santos and Gilmar had already retired, but the team, with Pelé, Rivelino, Jairzinho, Gérson, Carlos Alberto Torres, Tostão and Clodoaldo, is often considered to be the greatest football team in history.
In the first match, against Czechoslovakia, Pelé gave Brazil a 2–1 lead, by controlling Gerson's long pass with his chest and then scoring. In this match Pelé audaciously attempted to lob goalkeeper Ivo Viktor from the half-way line, only narrowly missing the Czechoslovak goal. Brazil went on to win the match, 4–1.
In the first half of the match against England, Pelé nearly scored with a header that was spectacularly saved by Gordon Banks. In the second half, he assisted Jairzinho for the only goal of the match.
Against Romania, Pelé opened the score on a direct free kick goal, a strong strike with the outside of his right foot. Later on in the match he scored again to take the score to 3–1. Brazil won by a final score of 3–2.
In the quarterfinals against Peru, Brazil won 4–2, with Pelé assisting Tostão on for Brazil's third goal.
In the semi-finals, Brazil faced Uruguay for the first time since the 1950 World Cup final round match. Jairzinho put Brazil ahead 2–1, and Pelé assisted Rivelino for the 3–1. During that match, Pelé made one of his most famous plays. Tostão gave Pelé a through ball, and Uruguay's goalkeeper Ladislao Mazurkiewicz took notice of it. The keeper ran off of his line to get the ball before Pelé, but Pelé got there first and fooled the keeper by not touching the ball, causing it to roll to the keeper's left, while Pelé went right. Pelé went around the goalkeeper and took a shot while turning towards the goal, but he turned in excess as he shot, and the ball drifted just wide of the far post.
Brazil played Italy in the final, with Pelé scoring the opener, with a header over Italian defender Tarcisio Burgnich. He then made assists on Jairzinho's and Carlos Alberto's goals, the latter one coming after an impressive collective play. Brazil won the match 4–1, keeping the Jules Rimet Trophy indefinitely, and Pelé was named player of the tournament.
Burgnich, who marked Pelé during the final, was quoted saying "I told myself before the game, he's made of skin and bones just like everyone else — but I was wrong".
Pelé also played in the South American Championship. In the 1959 competition he was top scorer with eight goals, as Brazil came second in the tournament.
Honours
[edit] Club
Brazil Santos
Copa Libertadores: 1962, 1963
Campeonato Paulista: 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1973[106]
Taça Brasil: 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965[107]
Torneio Roberto Gomes Pedrosa: 1968
Torneio Rio-São Paulo: 1959, 1963, 1964, 1966[108][109]
Intercontinental Cup: 1962, 1963
Recopa Intercontinental: 1968
United States New York Cosmos
North American Soccer League, Soccer Bowl: 1977
[edit] Country
Brazil Brazil
Roca Cup: 1957, 1963
FIFA World Cup: 1958, 1962, 1970
[edit] Individual
[16][110]
Brazil Santos
Copa Libertadores top scorer (1): 1965.
Campeonato Paulista top scorer (11): 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1969, 1973.
Brazil Brazil
Copa América top scorer (1): 1959.[91]
BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality:
Winner (1): 1970
FIFA World Cup (Best Young Player):[64]
Winner (1): 1958
FIFA World Cup (Silver Boot): 1958[64]
FIFA World Cup Silver Ball: 1958[64]
FIFA World Cup Golden Ball (Best Player):[63]
Winner (1): 1970
Athlete of the Century, elected by world wide journalists, poll by French daily L'Equipe: 1981
South American Footballer of the Year: 1973[111]
Inducted into the American National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1993.[112]
Knight Commander of the British Empire: 1997[113]
In 1989 DPR Korea issued a postage stamp depicting Pelé.[114]
Athlete of the Century, by Reuters News Agency: 1999
Athlete of the Century, elected by International Olympic Committee: 1999
UNICEF Football Player of the Century: 1999
TIME One of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century: 1999[115]
FIFA Player of the Century : 2000 (view : <a class="postlink" href="http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/players/player=63869/bio.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/pla ... 9/bio.html</a> )
Football Player of the Century, elected by France Football's Golden Ball Winners : 1999[15]
Football Player of the Century, by IFFHS International Federation of Football History and Statistics: 1999
South America Football Player of the Century, by IFFHS International Federation of Football History and Statistics: 1999
Laureus World Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement Award from South African President Nelson Mandela: 2000
In December 2000, Pelé and Maradona shared the prize of FIFA Player of the Century by FIFA.[116] The award was originally intended to be based upon votes in a web poll, but after it became apparent that it favoured Diego Maradona, many observers complained that the Internet nature of the poll would have meant a skewed demographic of younger fans who would have seen Maradona play, but not Pelé. FIFA then appointed a "Family of Football" committee of FIFA members to decide the winner of the award. The committee chose Pelé. Since Maradona was winning the Internet poll, however, it was decided he and Pelé should share the award.[117]
BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award:
Winner (1): 2005
A consensus of media and expert polls rank Pelé as the greatest footballer of all time.
Brazil national team - 77 goals in 92 matches
