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His parents decided to name the eldest of their two children after the American inventor, Thomas Edison, but removed the letter ‘i.’ His family called him ‘Dico,’ son of a warrior after his father, who was considered a brave and tough player on the pitch, but he soon obtained a new name which would, in time, become famous around the world to this day.
Pelé.
The story goes that he received the nickname at school when he mispronounced the name of his favourite footballer, the Vasco da Gama goalkeeper, Bilé. His friends were quick to pick up on Edson’s version of Bilé and the name, Pelé, stuck. Ironically, he did not particularly like his nickname – he once punched a schoolmate for calling him it and was given a two-day suspension – but as his reputation grew so did the name. Pelé is not a word that exists in the Portuguese language. But it exists in the global language of football. Forever.
Despite his father being a footballer, Pelé grew up in relative poverty in Bauru, in the state of São Paulo. Footballers were not well paid in the 1940s, especially in a poor country like Brazil. Indeed Dondinho retired early to earn more money elsewhere. His mission in life was to support his talented son and so he worked in many menial jobs, including being a hospital cleaner, whilst coaching Pelé. He was his son’s first coach and his best friend.
The young Pelé used to earn a little money working in a tea shop and shining shoes. His love of football began by kicking barefoot a sock stuffed with newspaper or mangoes because the family could not afford a football. It did not take long before people recognised this kid possessed a God-given talent and a natural affinity with a ball.
His first ambition had nothing to do with football. He wanted to become a pilot but was put off by the idea when a light aircraft fatally crashed near his home, killing the pilot and passengers. By turning his attentions to the great game, he pleased his father, but disappointed his loving and overprotective mother. She did not see any security in football.
He played for various amateur teams in his youth, including Canto do Rio, Amériquinha, Sete de Setembro and São Paulinho. He also captained Baura Athletic Juniors to two São Paulo state championships. The juniors were coached by Waldemar de Brito, a former footballer who played for various clubs both in Brazil and Argentina as well as for the Brazilian national team. He has always been credited for first ‘discovering’ Pelé.
The youngster could not get enough of the game. In his mid-teens he also played for an indoor football team called Radium. Indoor football (‘futsal’) had just become popular in the country and Pelé and his teammates won the first ever futsal championship in the region. It would be the first of many.
In later years he would admit that futsal helped him to hone his speed, skills and vision, such were the requirements of the faster, tighter indoor game.
In 1956, after being rejected by the bigger teams in the city of São Paulo, de Brito took Pelé to Santos, an industrial city in the municipality of São Paulo, to try out for the local professional football club, Santos FC (‘Saints’ in English). De Brito famously told the club directors that the 15 year old would become the ‘greatest player in the world’. It seemed a big, big call at the time, but de Brito’s outrageous prediction would prove to be right.
Pelé impressed the Santos manager, Lula, so much during his trial, which took place at the Estádio Vila Belmiro, that he offered him a professional contract. The teenager signed his first professional contract in June, 1956. He would be earning $60 per month, a small fortune compared to the previous poverty he and his family had been accustomed to.
The legend was about to begin.
The local media did not even wait to see the young man play. They took no time
in promoting him as a future superstar. Talk of this exciting young talent spread quickly. Ridiculously, there were expectation levels on Pelé even before he kicked his first ball in a professional football game.
None of this deterred him, mind you. He made his professional debut at the age of 15 on September 7th, 1956. Santos beat Corinthians de Santo André 7-1 and he scored his first goal in a career that was about to go through the roof. It would not, by a sizeable distance, be his last.
Pelé was awarded with a starting place in the first team for the 1957 season and ended it as the league’s top scorer. A year later he secured his first major title when Santos won the Campeonato Paulista.
Meanwhile, incredibly, just ten months after starting his professional career, he was called up for the Brazilian national team. His debut international game saw a 2-1 defeat to Argentina played on July 7th, 1957, at the Maracanã stadium, the famous sporting citadel in Rio de Janeiro. But the goal for Brazil was scored by the kid. He was 16 years and nine months old and remains the youngest ever goalscorer for his country.
His father had been a classic, old-school type of centre forward. But Pelé made the inside left forward’s position his own. The number ten would be emblazoned on his back throughout his iconic career.
Three days later Brazil would avenge this defeat against their biggest rivals
in world football by beating them 2-0 in São Paulo. Pelé scored again. In his third international, this time in May, 1958, he scored for the third successive time in a 5-1 defeat of Paraguay. He failed to add to his tally in his fourth game, a 4-0 defeat of Bulgaria in Rio, but grabbed two in his fifth game, also against the Eastern Europeans, in a 3-1 victory.
The boy’s international career was just five games old, but he had already scored five times. It was more than enough to get him a plane ticket to the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. If his stock had risen in the previous twelve months it was about to go through the stratosphere.