The Origins of Pele and Three World Cup Wins with Brazil

On 23 October 1940, a boy named Edson Arantes do Nascimento was born in the village of Tres Coracoes in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. His parents named him after Thomas Edison, though they misspelled it.

The nickname Pele arrived in childhood, its exact origin never fully explained. He reportedly found it grating because it sounded like babytalk in Portuguese.

His father, Dondinho, moved the family to Bauru, a railway town in Sao Paulo state, chasing a football career of his own. The boy who grew up there went on to become one of the greatest footballers of all time, winning three World Cups with Brazil.

Eight decades on, the tournament he shaped more than anyone is building towards another final, and interest to bet on World Cup icons has been climbing as the last four sides close in on New Jersey.

A shoeshine boy in Bauru

Dondinho was a talented footballer, but a knee injury ended his career before it truly began. The family fell into poverty. From the age of seven, Pele worked part-time as a shoeshine boy. His mother, Celeste, had watched what football had done to her husband and wanted nothing of it for her son. Pele played anyway, on the streets and pitches of Bauru.

Signed at 15

Waldemar de Brito, a former Brazilian international who had appeared in the 1934 World Cup, took Pele under his wing as a teenager and coached him at a local youth club. He eventually persuaded Pele’s mother to allow a trial at Santos FC.

When they arrived, De Brito told the club’s officials that the 15-year-old standing beside him would become the greatest footballer in the world. Santos signed him, and Pele’s first full professional season, in 1957, produced 58 goals in the Sao Paulo state championship. That record has never been broken.

A 17-year-old in the World Cup final

Brazil’s 1958 World Cup campaign in Sweden nearly began without Pele. He missed the opening two matches through injury, and Brazil’s manager was reluctant to change a winning team. Senior players pushed for his inclusion in the third group match against the Soviet Union, and Brazil’s campaign accelerated from that point.

Pele scored the quarter-final winner, a hat-trick in the semi-final and two goals in the 5-2 final win over Sweden. His first goal in that final was a piece of execution that his age made almost implausible: he collected the ball on his chest, chipped it back over his head, ran around the defender and volleyed it in. He was 17 and had been a professional for 18 months.

Three World Cups

By Chile in 1962, Pele had already played 426 games and scored 488 goals for club and country. He arrived with a groin injury that worsened in the second group match, and he played no further part in the tournament. Garrincha carried Brazil through the knockout rounds. Brazil won again.

In England in 1966, Pele was repeatedly fouled by Bulgarian and Portuguese defenders and limped out of the tournament early. He told journalists afterwards that he was finished with World Cups. Four years later he came back.

Mexico, 1970. Brazil had trained for three months specifically to deal with a more physical European game. Jairzinho, Gerson, Tostao, Rivelino and Carlos Alberto lined up alongside Pele in a squad that beat Italy 4-1 in the final. Pele opened the scoring. He was the only man on that pitch who had also played in the 1958 final. Three World Cup winners’ medals. No outfield player has matched that total, a stat that still gets debated wherever football betting odds and football history collide.

After Santos

Pele continued at Santos until October 1974. The Brazilian government had declared him a “non-exportable national treasure” in 1961, blocking European clubs from signing him for over a decade.

He came out of retirement in 1975 to join New York Cosmos, scored 65 goals in 111 games, and won the 1977 North American Soccer League (NASL) championship. His final match, an October 1977 exhibition between Santos and the Cosmos, ended with his 1,283rd goal in 1,367 games. He died on 29 December 2022 at the age of 82.