Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are tackling,
I mean, just a giant of a figure, a name that's
almost bigger than the sport itself. It really
is. We're talking about Edson Arante's Du Nascimento,
but of course, the entire world knows him by
one name. Pele. Exactly. And this isn't just
a look back at a great athlete. When you really
dig into the sources, you know, the stats, the
biographies, even the political documents, you
realize you're tracing the path of a global cultural
earthquake. Right. So our mission for you, the
listener, is to go past that simple title, the
greatest footballer, and really get into the
numbers, the moments and the surprising off the
field stuff that made him O -Ray. The king. That's
the goal. Okay, so let's just start with the
foundations, because the raw statistics, they
almost sound made up. They do. They really do.
Let's start with the big one, the number everyone
sort of knows, the career goal total. He holds
the Guinness World Record for the most goals
in a career. And that number is? It's 1 ,279
goals in 1 ,363 games. Wow. Now, you have to
be clear. That number includes friendlies and
exhibition matches, which is a point of debate
for some statisticians, but the sheer volume
is just... It's immense. And that's just the
club side of it, really. Internationally, he
stands completely alone. Completely. He is the
only player, man or woman, in the entire history
of the sport to win three FIFA World Cups. Three.
1958, 1962, and 1970. It's a record that I don't
think will ever be broken. It feels untouchable.
And what's fascinating is how his status just
transcends football. The International Olympic
Committee, the IOC, they named him athlete of
the century in 1999. Despite the fact he never
even played in the Olympics. Right. That's how
big his impact was. And Time magazine put him
on their list of the 100 most important people
of the 20th century. Not athletes, people. He's
up there with world leaders and scientists. And,
you know, even FIFA, when they tried to name
a player of the century. century, it got so contentious.
The internet vote went to Maradona, but the committee
chose Pele. So they just they end up sharing
the award. But his influence wasn't just in how
he played. It was in how we talk about the game.
Oh, absolutely. He is widely credited with coining
the phrase the beautiful game. He literally gave
us the language to describe the art form he was
creating on the pitch. And to really understand
that art, you have to go back to the beginning.
Yeah. To Trace Corozoins in Brazil. A very humble
beginning. He was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento,
named after Thomas Edison, the inventor. I love
that detail. But here's a little bit of chaos
right from the start. His birth certificate had
a typo. It listed him as Edison, not Edson. So
the king's story begins with a paperwork error.
And with real poverty. That's so central to his
story, right? Growing up in Bauru. Profound poverty.
He had to work odd jobs as a kid, serving in
tea shops, shining shoes, anything to help the
family. And the famous image of him playing,
it wasn't with a proper football. It was a grapefruit
or a sock stuffed with newspaper. Exactly. A
sock stuffed with newspaper and tied up with
a string. It's this perfect metaphor for genius
being born out of, you know, just pure necessity
and imagination. His family called him Deco.
So where did the name Pele come from? It's another
one of these wonderful, almost accidental stories.
He was a fan of a local goalkeeper named Bile.
Bile. Right. And as a kid, he kept mispronouncing
the name. His friends started teasing him, calling
him Pele to make fun of him. He hated it through
tantrums, which, of course, just made the name
stick even harder. And the incredible irony is
what the word means. It's almost too perfect.
Years later, he found out that in Hebrew, the
word Pele means miracle, a nickname born from
a childhood tantrum that translates to miracle.
You couldn't write it. Before he ever stepped
on a professional grass pitch, though, there
was futsal, indoor football. The sources really
stress how important this was for him. He credited
it himself. He said it was the key to his development.
Futsal is played on a hard court, a small space,
with a heavier ball that doesn't bounce much.
So you have to be incredibly precise. And you
have to think so much faster. The ball is on
you in an instant. Pele said it taught him how
to think on his feet and gave him incredible
confidence playing against adults when he was
just 14. He actually said it made him unafraid.
He scored something like 14 or 15 goals in an
adult tournament and realized, I can do this.
I'm not afraid of whatever comes next. And that
is the exact mentality he took with him to Santos.
Which brings us to the Santos dynasty. I mean...
The leap from poverty to professional superstardom
was, what, almost instantaneous. It was incredibly
fast. He was only 15 when his youth coach, a
guy named Waldemar DeBrito, took him for a trial
at Santos FC. And he didn't just recommend him.
He made a prediction. A huge one. He told the
directors at Santos, this boy will be the greatest
football player in the world. Talk about pressure.
But he lived up to it. Immediately. He signs
his contract in June 1956. By September, he makes
his senior debut and scores in a 7 -1 win. By
the time he's 16, he's a starter and the top
scorer in the entire league for the 1957 season.
The speed of that rise is just, it's dizzying.
And it caused a real panic outside of Brazil.
It caused a full -blown political event, which
leads us to one of the most unbelievable parts
of this story, the national treasure decree.
Okay, let's set the stage for this. Brazil wins
the World Cup in 58, then again in 62. Pele is
the face of global football. So every rich European
club comes calling. Real Madrid, Juventus, Manchester
United, Inter Milan, you name it. They were all
throwing huge amounts of money at Santos to sign
him. And Inter Milan actually got close, didn't
they? They did. They actually had a contract
with him. But the second the news broke in Brazil,
there was this massive public outcry. The fans
were furious. It got so intense that the chairman
of Santos had to publicly tear up the contract.
So the people basically refused to let him go.
They saw him as more than a player. He was a
national symbol. And the government agreed. In
1961, the president. Jânio Quadros signed a law
declaring Pelé an official national treasure.
A national treasure. What did that mean in practical
terms? It meant he couldn't be transferred out
of the country. It was a political act designed
specifically to prevent the international market
from buying Brazil's greatest cultural asset.
Was there any pushback to that? Or was it just
universally accepted as the right thing to do?
For most Brazilians, it was a source of national
pride. The sources don't show any significant
public criticism. People saw it as protecting
their identity, especially after the trauma of
losing the 1950 World Cup at home. It was a statement.
This man belongs to Brazil. And because he stayed,
Santos just became this global powerhouse. He
led them to, what, 10 state championships? 10
Campeonato Polista titles. And he was the top
scorer in that league 11 times. But it wasn't
just regional. They won six national championships,
the Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A. They were
just dominant. Utterly. Yeah. And a key part
of that dominance was the 1958 season where he
scored 58 goals in the state league. 58 goals.
As a 17 -year -old. And that record still stands
today. It's one of those benchmarks that he set
at the very beginning of his career that just
seems impossible to reach. The peak of that club's
success, though, had to be winning the Copa Libertadores
South America's biggest prize back -to -back.
Yes, in 1962 and 1963. The team was so elegant,
they were nicknamed the Ballet Branco, the White
Ballet. And that 62 Intercontinental Cup final
against Benfica in Europe? That was his coronation.
He scored a hat -trick in Lisbon. A hat -trick
and a 5 -2 win that just stunned Europe. The
Benfica goalkeeper, Costa Pereira, said something
that became legendary. He said, I arrived hoping
to stop a great man, but I went away convinced
I had been undone by someone who was not born
on the same planet as the rest of us. Not born
on the same planet. That's not just praise. That's
mythology. It is. And beyond just the wins, there
are these specific goals that have become part
of that mythology. Right. The two goals the sources
always point to. The first one is famous precisely
because we can't see it. The one against Klub
Athletico Juventus in 1959. There's no video
footage of it. But by all accounts, he received
the ball, flicked it over one defender, then
another, then a third, and then chipped it over
the goalkeeper. So it only exists in memory.
It was considered his greatest ever goal, and
he was so frustrated that no one could see it
that he later commissioned a computer animation
just to try and show people what happened. He
had to create the evidence for his own genius.
And the second one they made sure to commemorate
on the spot? The gold aplaca. The goal worthy
of a plaque. March 1961 at the legendary Mariconin
Stadium. And this one was just pure power and
grace. He gets the ball inside his own half and
just runs. He runs the entire length of the field,
weaving past opponent after opponent and then
scores. It was so breathtaking that a plaque
was commissioned right there at the stadium to
dedicate it as the most beautiful goal in the
history of the Mariconin. A permanent monument
to a single moment of brilliance. Think about
all the legends who played there. And they chose
that goal. Of course, the ultimate individual
milestone of that era was hitting the thousand
goal mark. Oh, millesimo. The entire country
was counting down. It was a national obsession.
It finally happened on November 19th, 1969. It
came from a penalty kick. The pressure on that
kick must have been insane. The stadium was silent.
And when he scored, the pitch was invaded. He
was carried on people's shoulders. It was this
massive shared national celebration. The number
itself became the achievement. And to put his
club record in perspective, he scored 643 official
goals for Santos. That record for most goals
at a single club stood for half a century. Until
Lionel Messi finally broke it in 2020. It just
shows you the level of sustained excellence over
such a long period. Since he couldn't leave Brazil,
Santos basically took him on the road. They became
a global touring act, like a rock band. It was
a way to capitalize on his fame. They played
exhibition matches everywhere, Europe, the Middle
East, North America. And that touring led to
probably the most surreal story about his power,
the one about the Nigerian Civil War. It's an
incredible story. The legend goes that in 1969,
the two sides fighting the Nigerian Civil War
agreed to a 48 -hour ceasefire just so that people
could watch Pele play an exhibition match. A
ceasefire. for a football game. Now, in his own
autobiography, Pele said he wasn't sure if an
official ceasefire was actually declared, but
he confirmed the security was unlike anything
he'd ever seen. The fact that the story was even
believable, that his presence could be perceived
as something that could halt a war, tells you
everything about the kind of soft power he had.
He was like a head of state. He was. And there
were lighter moments on these tours, too, like
the story about the Egyptian movie star Zubaydah
Tharwat. Right. In Kuwait in 1973. She claimed
he just fell for her instantly and kept chasing
her day and night. But they couldn't communicate
at all because he didn't speak English. It's
just this funny little image of his global celebrity
colliding with, you know, everyday life. A global
icon who could stop a war but couldn't chat up
a movie star because of a language barrier. It
shows the human side of the myth. But all that
fame, all that commercial power, it was all built
on the foundation of what he did for Brazil in
the World Cup. The ultimate stage. And his journey
there was, well, it was a roller coaster. It
started with a bang. His very first game for
Brazil. He scores against Argentina. He's only
16, still the youngest goal scorer in the country's
history. Then comes the 1958 World Cup in Sweden.
He almost doesn't go. He arrives with a knee
injury. But his teammates basically demanded
he be included. They did. And once he got on
the pitch in the knockout stages, he just took
over. He scores the only goal against Wales in
the quarterfinal, becoming the youngest goal
scorer in World Cup history. And then the semifinal
against France. He scores a hat -trick. The youngest
player ever to do that in a World Cup. He was
just unstoppable. And in the final against the
hosts, Sweden, he becomes a global icon. He scores
two goals. Including that legendary one where
he flicks the ball over a defender's head and
then follies it into the net. It's one of the
most famous goals ever scored. There's that great
quote from the Swedish player Sigvard Parling.
Oh, it's perfect. He said, when Pele scored the
fifth goal in that final, I have to be honest
and say I felt like applauding. Your opponent
wants to clap for you as you're beating them
in a World Cup final. It speaks to a kind of
genius that just transcends competition. He finished
that tournament as the best young player, and
he did it all while wearing the number 10 jersey.
Which he only got because of a clerical error.
Total disorganization. The Brazilian Federation
forgot to assign numbers, so FIFA just did it
randomly. Pelé, a substitute at the start, got
number 10. And a legend was born from chaos.
The 1962 World Cup in Chile should have been
his tournament. He was at that point the undisputed
best player in the world. And he started like
it. In the first game against Mexico, he assists
one and scores a brilliant solo goal. But then
in the second match. Disaster. He pulls a muscle
trying a long range shot and he's out for the
entire rest of the tournament. So Brazil won
that World Cup, but really without him for the
most part. Mostly without him, yes. It was Garincha
who really stepped up and carried the team. Pele
didn't get a winner's medal at the time because
he didn't play in the final. FIFA gave him one
retroactively years later in 2007. Which brings
us to 1966 in England. If 62 was tragic, 66 was
just brutal. It was. The strategy to stop him
was just to kick him. Repeatedly. He scored in
the first game against Bulgaria, making him the
first player to score in three straight World
Cups. But he paid the price for it. Heavily.
In the final group game against Portugal, he
was fouled so viciously he could barely walk.
And back then there were no substitutes. So he
was forced to just limp around the pitch, a passenger,
as Brazil were eliminated. He was so disgusted
by it all, he said he'd never play in a World
Cup again. He did. It was a really low point
for him. It showed how the sheer physicality
of the game could nullify even his level of genius.
But thank goodness he changed his mind. Because
1970 in Mexico is the ultimate redemption. It's
the perfect final act. He initially refused to
play, but eventually came back. And that 1970
Brazil squad, my goodness. It's often called
the greatest football team ever assembled. You
had Rivalino, Jairzinha, Gerson, Carlos Alberto,
Tostão, and Pelé at the heart of it all. He wasn't
the young explosive forward anymore. He was the
playmaker, the brain. The ultimate number 10.
Their style was just, it was fluid, it was fast,
it was joyful. And Pele created so many iconic
moments in that tournament, even ones where he
didn't score. Like the shot from the halfway
line against Czechoslovakia. Or that incredible
save by Gordon Banks for England. Pele's header
looked destined for the net. He used to joke
that people remember Banks' save more than any
of his goals. And that dummy against the Uruguayan
keeper in the semifinal. The non -touch. Pure
genius. Just letting the ball run past him while
he sprinted around the other side of the keeper.
It didn't result in a goal, but it showed a level
of thinking that was just on another plane. And
then the final against Italy. He opens the scoring
with a towering header. It was Brazil's 100th
World Cup goal. The celebration, him leaping
into Jairzinho's arms, is one of the most famous
photos in sports. And for the rest of the game,
he's the creator. Especially for that final goal.
The Carlos Alberto goal. It's considered the
perfect team goal. And it ends with Pele receiving
the ball, pausing for just a split second, and
then rolling this perfectly weighted, no -look
pass into the path of his captain. It was sublime.
Tarcisio Brunic, the Italian defender who marked
him, said it all. I told myself before the game,
he's made of skin and bones just like everyone
else, but I was wrong. He was wrong. Pele won
the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player.
his third World Cup, a legacy cemented forever.
He retired from Brazil in 1971, and that amazing
stat, with both him and Garincha on the pitch,
Brazil never, ever lost a single match. Let's
pivot from the records to the style to the brand.
He coined the beautiful game. And his play was
the definition of it. He was just so complete.
He could shoot powerfully with both feet. He
was amazing in the air, despite not being tall
because his timing was perfect. But his real
genius was his vision and intelligence. He saw
the game three steps ahead of everyone else.
And he had these signature moves that drove defenders
crazy. He did. There was the dribble de vaca,
the cow dribble, this little feint to get past
a player. But the most famous and maybe the most
controversial was the paradinha. The little stop
on penalty kicks. Exactly. He'd run up to take
a penalty and then just stop dead in his tracks.
The keeper would dive and Paley would just roll
the ball into the other side of the net. It seems
so simple, but it's pure psychological warfare.
It was so effective that FIFA eventually banned
it in the 70s. Think about that. You're so good
at one move that the sports governing body has
to literally change the rules to stop you. But
for all that trickery, he was also known for
his sportsmanship. The image of him and Bobby
Moore swapping shirts after the England game
in 1970 is iconic. It really is. It represents
this deep mutual respect between two of the game's
greats. There's no gloating, no despair, just
admiration. That image, that brand, made him
a commercial juggernaut. Which brings us to the
story of the Puma Pact. This is a business school
case study. Before the 1970 World Cup, you had
the two big German sportswear brands, Adidas
and Puma, run by the rival Dassler brothers.
And they were terrified of getting into a bidding
war over Pele. So they made a secret gentleman's
agreement, the Pele Pact. Neither company would
try to sign him. Puma had other ideas. Puma broke
the pact. They went to Pele and paid him a huge
sum, about $120 ,000 for one single simple action.
Which was? Right before the kickoff of the quarterfinal
against Peru, he asked the referee to pause for
a moment so he could tie his shoes. In the center
circle. In the center circle. In front of a global
television audience of hundreds of millions.
The cameras, of course, zoom right in on his
hands as he slowly, deliberately ties his brand
new Puma King boots. It's brilliant. Gorilla
marketing before that was even a term. It was
a masterstroke. It launched the Puma brand globally
overnight and basically kickstarted the modern
era of multi -million dollar athlete endorsements.
He wasn't just a player, he was a walking billboard.
After all that, after conquering Brazil and the
world, he did the one thing no one expected.
He went to America. To the New York cosmos in
1975, he came out of semi -retirement to play
in the North American Soccer League. Which at
the time was a very minor league. Very. Signing
him was a massive gamble to try and make soccer
popular in the U .S. They made him the highest
paid athlete in the world to do it. And the impact
was immediate. It was chaos. His first public
appearance in Boston, the crowds were so huge
he was crushed and had to be carried out on a
stretcher. He was a phenomenon on a level America
hadn't really seen before from a global star.
And he legitimized the league. For Americans
and for other players. Absolutely. His arrival
was a signal for other legends to follow. Friends
Beckenbauer came, Johan Cruyff, Eusebio. The
NASL suddenly became this glamorous, star -studded
league. He didn't just play in the league. He
basically built its reputation. And he went out
on top. He did. He led the Cosmos to the Soccer
Bowl title in 1977, his final season. And his
farewell match was just this perfectly staged
event. Cosmos versus his old club. Santos. In
a sold -out giant stadium, Muhammad Ali was there,
Robert Redford. It was a huge deal. He played
one half for each team. And he delivered a little
speech before the game. Love is more important
than what we can take in life. And then he went
out and scored his final goal, a 30 -yard free
-quick for the Cosmos. And then the perfect ending.
It started to rain. And the next day, a Brazilian
newspaper ran the headline, Even the Sky Was
Crying. A fittingly poetic end to an epic career.
So his playing day's end. But the legacy, the
awards, they just keep coming. For the rest of
his life. And the testimonials from the people
who played against him, they're almost more powerful
than the trophies. Let's talk about some of those.
Johan Cruyff. A genius in his own right. Cruyff
said, Pele was the only footballer who surpassed
the boundaries of logic. Bobby Moore, his great
English rival. Moore said, Pele was the most
complete player I've ever seen. He seemed a giant
of an athlete on the pitch. And Ferenc Puskas,
the Hungarian legend. What did he say? Puskas
said, I refuse to classify Pele as a player.
He was above that. That's maybe the ultimate
compliment. He's not even in the category of
player. And then there's that joke from the 1970
broadcast. Panelist asks how to spell Pele, and
Patty Curran just says, easy, G -O -D. Pele himself
seemed to struggle with that level of deification.
He did. He once said, Pele doesn't die. Pele
will never die. But Edson is a normal person
who is going to die one day, and the people forget
that. He understood he had become two different
things. the myth, and the man. Even with all
that, he never won the Ballon d 'Or, the big
individual prize? Well, he couldn't. Back then,
it was only for European players, which is a
huge historical asterisk. But they corrected
that, in a way. They did. France Football, the
magazine that gives out the award, did a re -evaluation
years later. They calculated that if non -Europeans
have been eligible from the start, Pele would
have won the Ballon d 'Or record seven times.
Seven. Wow. It just reinforces his statistical
dominance over that era. Beyond football, he
moved into some serious roles. He was knighted
by the Queen of England. He was a U .N. ambassador.
And he became a government minister in Brazil.
Yes. From 1995 to 1998, he was Brazil's minister
of sports. An extraordinary move. And his big
project was trying to clean up the sport. It
was. He proposed what became known as the Pele
Law, which was a major piece of legislation designed
to fight corruption and modernize Brazilian football.
What did it actually do? It tried to force clubs
to be more like professional businesses instead
of these old, opaque social clubs. And crucially,
it gave players more freedom and control over
their own contracts, which was a huge shift in
power. away from the club owners. I imagine that
didn't go over well with the establishment. Not
at all. He faced incredible resistance from the
old guard who benefited from the corrupt system.
The law's impact was mixed, but it was a brave
and significant attempt by a sporting icon to
use his political power for reform. He never
really stopped being a global voice. Even late
in his life, in 2022, he wrote an open letter
to Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine. He
always saw himself as having a platform and a
responsibility. He started the Pele Foundation
in 2018 to help underprivileged children. His
legacy was always something he was actively building.
Unfortunately, his final years were marked by
a serious battle with his health. They were.
He had had health issues for a while, but in
September 2021, he had surgery for a colon tumor.
And that was the beginning of the end. It was.
He started chemotherapy, but by November 2022,
he was hospitalized and the cancer was no longer
responding to treatment. He died on December
29th, 2022 at 82. And the whole world mourned.
The Brazilian government declared three days
of national mourning. Landmarks everywhere, from
the Christ the Redeemer statue to Wembley Stadium,
were lit up in the colors of Brazil. The funeral
was a massive public event in Santos. A two -day
wake at the stadium where he became a legend,
over 230 ,000 people came to pay their respects.
He was buried in a vertical cemetery on the ninth
floor in a tomb that overlooks the Santos football
pitch. A final resting place watching over the
field where he made his name. A poetic final
touch. And even after his death, the honors continue.
And one of them is maybe the most unique tribute
of all. It has to be the dictionary entry. After
a big public campaign in Brazil in April 2023,
the Michaelis Portuguese Dictionary officially
added Pelé as an adjective. As an adjective.
So what's the definition? The definition is exceptional,
incomparable, unique. His name is now officially
a synonym for perfection. That is just incredible.
So when we wrap all this up, when we look at
the whole picture, you're left with this dual
legacy that is just. It's unmatched. On one hand,
you have the pure athlete. Three World Cups,
the Guinness World Record for goals, athlete
of the century. The numbers are undeniable. But
on the other hand, you have this cultural force.
The man who coined the beautiful game, who could
allegedly stop a war, who pioneered global sports
marketing with a shoelace, and opened up America
to soccer. He was both at the same time. Which
brings you to that great quote from Henry Kissinger
of all people. Kissinger knew him well. What
did he say? He said, performance at a high level
in any sport is to exceed the ordinary human
scale. But Pele's performance transcended that
of the ordinary star by as much as the star exceeds
ordinary performance. So he's saying Pele wasn't
just in a different league from normal people.
He was in a different league from other superstars.
Exactly. His actions just had a different weight.
And that leaves us with a final thought for you
to consider. In our modern world of social media
and fragmented fame, can any athlete today truly
have that kind of impact? Can anyone become so
big that their nickname becomes a literal definition
of greatness in the dictionary, a political force,
and a cultural icon, all from the simple act
of playing a game beautifully? Thank you for
joining us for this deep dive into the legacy
of O -Ray.