Pele: The Autobiography

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Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known worldwide as the greatest footballer that ever lived, Pele, passed away on 29 Dec 2022 at the age of 82. He won every competition there is to win at club and world level. He played professional football at the age of 16 and debuted for Brazil at 17. He would go on to play 1363 senior games and score 1279 goals in a career spanning almost two decades, winning three World Cups

Not to mention the severely dodgy elements of cheating and underaged women. Some parts about his son heading down a dark path doesn’t surprise me considering I can’t possibly see how you have the availability to care for all your children if they’re all in different places with different women and you travel all the time. Of course without good examples of behaviour and an unavailable father who practically mistreats his mother in the way he cheats on all of them despite claiming to be very into God and the bible, it’s almost hypocritical to read. Pelé embraces the boxer Muhammad Ali during a ceremony honouring the Brazilian in 1977. Photograph: AP Pelé remains one of the most beloved and iconic sports figures in history, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest football players of all time. His legacy lives on through his academy and his incredible feats on the pitch. He has written multiple books about his life and continues to be an inspiration to young footballers around the world. Final Summary and Review Pelé first came to international attention in the 1958 World Cup, when the 17 year old stunned the world with 3 goals in the semi-final and 2 goals in the finals, helping Brazil win the competition.

A Short Biography of Pelé

However, since his sad death and having read major tributes, including a fantastic issue of the UK's World Soccer magazine, I was left more intrigued to learn more.

With such a great story to be told, there is no surprise that authors have raced to capture his life in books for us to cherish and learn from. This includes an autobiography, with the story coming directly from the footballing legend. Pelé: The AutobiographyCasa Pelé, the small two‑room house in Três Corações where Pelé was born in 1940, is now a popular tourist attraction. As no photographs or descriptions of the original house have survived, it was rebuilt entirely from the memories of Pelé’s mother, Dona Celeste, and his uncle Jorge, with period furniture and fixings sourced from antique shops. And so what greets visitors today is really only a vague approximation of the house where one of the world’s most famous footballers spent his earliest years: a heavily curated blend of hazy memories and selective detail. As you walk in, a wireless radio plays classic songs from the early 1940s on an endless loop. For more of a third-person perspective on the life of Pelé, this biography offers a detailed account on the footballing career of the Brazilian legend. For example, at the beginning Pele mentions that goals at friendly matches weren't counted towards his general career records, but then he goes on playing other friendlies and scoring goals that were adding up to his first 1,000. Why so? No explanation. Born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, during a playing career which stretched from 7 Sep 1956 to 1 Oct 1977, Pelé scored 1,283 goals. Finally, it was hard to finish in truth because it was such a pain to read i almost fell asleep 10 times throughout and I read regularly without issue, most are just unrecorded on my account.

Julien Loche, Jean-Michel Gardarein, Maud Pelé, Frédéric Williatte, Olivier Lelièvre-Bellini et Benoît Desrayaud Extensive and lavishly illustrated two-volume work telling the full story of the great Brazilian footballer's life and career, featuring commentaries from Pele himself throughout, extracts from the press and rare archival images. 4to. 800pp. Cloth-covered boards in presentation sleeve. Minor wear to protective sleeve otherwise both volumes in very good condition. A very heavy item that may incur extra delivery costs (particularly overseas). This book aside from his childhood mostly lists his achievements in the Football world and his success. Even though I enjoyed reading about the legend, I do wish that there were some personal moments that I got to read about. Overall, it is very inspiring and definitely a must-read. Unfortunately, this autobiography adds nothing to the legend that is Pelé and tells us very little really that we didn't already know.

Pelé Quotes:

Aged 11 Pelé joined a youth squad coached by an ex-Brazil player. When he was 15 his coach took him to try out for Santos, a professional Brazilian football club, telling the club "This boy will be the greatest soccer player in the world". He was signed up immediately, and scored his first professional goal before he even turned 16 years old! He was soon recruited into the Brazilian national team, too. At sixteen, he made his professional debut with the legendary Santos Football Club. He would stay with them for nearly two decades, becoming their all-time leading goalscorer and most successful player ever. It was during his time with Santos that Pele really began to make a name for himself, showing his incredible talents on the pitch and becoming an icon of the game. He won numerous awards and titles with Santos, including the Campeonato Paulista seven times and the prestigious Copa Libertadores twice. StoryShot #2: Pele’s Early Professional Career But then, when you have lived as eventful and celebrated a life as Pelé has, memory becomes a vague and splintered thing. Pelé didn’t simply create his own lore out of thin air, even if for the most part he happily went along with it. He’s not sitting there on Wikipedia diligently amending his own goal record. Pelé buys wholeheartedly into his own myth because over 60 years the course of his life led him inexorably in that direction. And so, ultimately, perhaps what you remember is more often what you remember remembering, or what someone else remembered, a well-cut anecdote that you have spent more than half your life polishing before a succession of simpering interviewers. Perhaps over time the fact and the legend blend into each other, to the point where it is no longer meaningful to tell them apart. This isn’t about greats and frauds, truth and lies. It’s about the pressing urge of Pelé’s generation to exalt this one man above all others in what is essentially the history of a team game.

I can speak for both of us when I say we thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Pelé. The book revealed him to be not only an incredible football player, but an incredible human being also. He did not try to portray himself as a saint; he shows he is a man just like others, but also he has a depth of character that seems rare these days, especially in the world of sport. The main character of the book is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, also known as Pele, who is a legendary Brazilian soccer player. The book explores Pele's childhood, his rise to fame, and his impact on the world of soccer. And yet by the same token, this is no hagiography. Pelé’s extramarital affairs and uncomfortably close relationship with Brazil’s murderous military dictatorship are interrogated in some detail, pieced together from archive footage, interviews with teammates, politicians and journalists, and substantial access to Pelé himself. By accident or by design, Pelé does not emerge as some virtuous conquering hero, but as a flawed and credulous star: a man who could do everything on a football pitch, but away from it was often the product of forces he could neither harness nor fully understand. Perhaps the rawest and most moving footage is of Pelé himself, now 80 and in declining health: wheeling himself into the sparse interview room on a Zimmer frame, winching himself heavily into a chair, sighing deeply.

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Throughout the book there is analysis of the distinctive and defining traits that made Pelé into the player he was, allowing him to go on and score over 1,200 goals. You also get the insight into his childhood, one that would provide a humble experience and shape him into the character that we became familair with.