On This Day – 23rd October
Today is Pele’s 80th birthday. The Brazilian is the most famous player to wear the yellow number 10 shirt of Brazil and is regarded as the greatest player of all-time.
His full name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento and I thinkhe chose the name Pele as it is much easier to sign autographs!
Pele scored a hat-trick in the 1958 World Cup Final at the tender age of 17 and was carried off the pitch in tears after Brazil’s 5-2 victory over hosts Sweden. He was also part of the Brazil side that retained the Jules Rimet Trophy four years later in Chile and the much-fabled successful side that won the competition in 1970.
It was at the 1970 World Cup that Pele showed how skillful he really was with two near-misses. He tried scoring from the halfway line against Czechoslovakia and the ball dropped narrowly wide of the post.
Then in a match against South American counterparts Uruguay, he dummied the onrushing Uruguayan goalkeeper, running one way and letting the ball go past the other side of the goalkeeper before hitting a shot agonisingly wide.
It would take up too much space on here to list all of Pele’s career records and achievements on this post but a few standout records that can’t be ignored are:
He is the record goalscorer for Santos with 643 goals in 656 games and Brazil with 77 goals in 92 games. His career tally stood at an extraordinary 1,283 goals in 1,363 games which includes a world record 92 hat-tricks!
Pele is one of the most recognisable faces in football and his legacy will live as long as the game is played. In my eyes, he was the greatest player of all-time.
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