With 77 goals in 92 international games, Pele, the all-time leading scorer for Brazil, was arguably the best player to ever play the game. The three-time World Cup champion and unrivaled player embodied the skill, agility, and creativity of the “beautiful game.”
Pele was born on October 23, 1940, in Tres Coracoes, southern Brazil, into a low-income family. His full name, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, was in honor of US inventor Thomas Edison, as he explained in a tweet from 2014, given that electricity had only recently been introduced to his hamlet.
How many World Cup trophies did Pele win?
The only athlete to have three World Cup victories is Pele. He scored twelve goals in the World Cup and won the coveted trophy in 1958, 1962, and 1970.
Pele, then 17 years old, scored twice as Brazil overcame host Sweden 5-2 in the 1958 World Cup final. He was the first player under the age of 17 to ever score a goal in the history of the World Cup.
Injury, however, prevented him from taking part in Brazil’s victory in Chile in 1962, and in England in 1966, he was keenly scrutinized and the target of multiple, at times severe, fouls.
