Pelé was born on October 23, 1940, in Três Coraçes, Minas Gerais, Brazil, to Fluminense footballer Dondinho (born Joo Ramos do Nascimento) and Celeste Arantes.
He was the eldest of two siblings named after the American inventor Thomas Edison. His parents opted to drop the I and call him “Edson,” but there was an error on the birth certificate, so many records reflect his name as “Edison,” rather than “Edson,” as he is.
His relatives dubbed him “Dico” at first. He was given the moniker “Pelé” in school due to his mispronunciation of the name of his favorite player, local Vasco da Gama goalie Bilé, which he misspoke, but the more he complained, the more it stayed.
Pelé revealed in his memoirs that neither he nor his old pals knew what the moniker meant.
Apart from the claim that the name is derived from “Bilé” and that it is Hebrew for “wonder”, the term has no recognized Portuguese meaning.
Pelé grew up in the impoverished town of Bauru in the state of So Paulo. He supplemented his income by working as a server at tea shops.
He couldn’t buy a decent football and had to make do with a sock stuffed with newspaper and tied with string or a grapefruit.
In his youth, he played for various amateur teams, including Sete de Setembro, Canto do Rio, So Paulinho, and Amériquinha. Pelé led the Bauru Athletic Club juniors (coached by Waldemar de Brito) to two So Paulo state youth titles.
Pelé burial service arrangements
Brazil’s Pele’s funeral will be held at Vila Belmiro Stadium in the state of Sao Paulo. The funeral service will also be held between Monday (January 2, 2023) and Tuesday (January 3, 2023).
