Dondinho and Celeste named their first son Edson after Thomas Edison, one of the greatest inventors in history.
His family nicknamed him ‘Dico’, but he received the moniker ‘Pele’ in school due to his mispronunciation of Brazilian goalkeeper, Bile.
A teenage dream who was the highest-paid and highest-profile sports star in the world in his pomp, Pele was a phenomenon.
Pele Broke on to the global scene at the age of 17 with a hat-trick in the World Cup semi-final and two more in the final, Brazil’s leading goalscorer is one of just four players to have scored in four different World Cup tournaments (1958, 1962, 1966 and 1970).
He also extraordinarily scored 127 goals for Santos in one calendar year: 1959.
Happy Birthday Brazilian Football Legend and Three-time FIFA World Cup winner Pele at 80.
Photo Credit: Getty Images pic.twitter.com/nW7z9IQwGF
— GO247 BLOG (@Go247B) October 23, 2020
Below are five World Cup records Pele holds;
- Pele is the youngest scorer, youngest hat-trick scorer, youngest Final player and youngest Final scorer in World Cup history.
- Gunnar Gren, who competed against Brazil in the 1958 decider, made his Sweden debut before Pele was born. Never has such an age gap – 20 years – existed between opponents in a World Cup Final.
- Uwe Seeler, Pele, Miroslav Klose and Cristiano Ronaldo are the only men to score in four World Cups. The West German pipped the Brazilian to become the first to do so by less than three minutes in 1970.
- Vava, Pele, Paul Breitner and Zinedine Zidane are the only players to have scored in two World Cup Finals.
- Pele registered six assists at Mexico 1970 – a record for one World Cup. Four players managed five: Robert Gadocha at Germany 1974, Pierre Littbarski at Spain 1982, Diego Maradona at Mexico 1986 and Thomas Hassler at USA 1994. Pele also recorded an unprecedented three assist in deciders: one against Sweden in 1958 and two against Italy in ’70.
