One of the most loved football players of all time: who is Pele?

He was named the football player of the year in the world in 1959 and in South America in 1960, 1964 and 1965.

His autobiography "I am Pele", which he wrote, entered the list of best-selling books.

His full name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento Pele.

Pelé, as he is known around the world, was born on October 23, 1940, in Três Corações, Brazil. He was nicknamed Pepe by the family, but was nicknamed 'Peli', meaning mischievous, by his cousins ​​and little friends, which eventually became Pelé. Pele, whose full name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, was a shoe polisher until he was discovered at the age of 11. De Brito, who discovered him 4 years later, said to Santos' managers one day, "This kid will be the best football player in the world." The following season, Pelé proved the truth of this promise when he became the star player of the league.

TEAMS PELE PLAYED

He started his career in Santos, one of the best teams in the Brazilian League at that time, and left it in Cosmos, another famous club. He is the top scorer in football history. With the Cosmos jersey, he left football as the "top scorer" by scoring 52 goals in the league and 12 goals in the cup during a season.

NATIONAL TEAM

He tasted his first World Championship in 1958. Pele, who was taken to Sweden among the substitutes, attracted attention with his successful football when he entered the game and took part in the first eleven of the National Team and became one of those who lifted the cup.

The 1962 World Cup was a bad time for him. Pele was not called up to this national team because he was injured.

Pele, who is called the uncrowned king of football, showed that he is both a mature football player and the best football player in the world in the 1970 world cup, and Brazil won the championship in this world cup for the third time and took the cup home for the third time.

Being a technical player who can do anything at any moment made him a nightmare for his opponents, but instead of indulging in it, he tried to improve himself even more.

He scored 1284 goals for the Santos team, which he played until 1974. In 1975, he transferred to Team Cosmos of the USA for $4 million. When he left football in 1977, the number of goals scored in 1363 league games reached 1281.

PELE'S GOALS

He is considered one of the best football players of all time in the world. He has been on the team that won the FIFA World Cup 3 times. He won his first world championship in 1958. In his football career, he scored 1281 goals, a record that is hard to break. However, Pele has achieved another success by scoring five goals in a match 6 times throughout his career. Pelé, who scored four goals in a match 30 times, scored a hat-trick in 92 matches.

A 2-day ceasefire was declared in the war 

Santos FC, for which Pele played in the 1960s, was one of the leading teams in the world, and thanks to this great reputation, they were able to play lucrative friendly matches all over the world.

One of these matches was played on February 4, 1969, in war-ravaged Nigeria. Santos won this match against a local team in Benin City with a 2-1 win.

At the time, Nigeria was caught in the middle of a bloody civil war triggered by the Biafra state's attempt to secede.

According to Santos FC historian Guilherme Guarche, the Brazilians were worried about the safety of their team, so a ceasefire was reached between the warring parties.

This story has been controversial for the past few years and was not included in Pele's first highly anticipated autobiography, published in 1977.

But in another autobiography published 30 years later, the Brazilian legend spoke of this situation.

Pele stated that the players in the team were told that the civil war would be stopped because of the friendly match:

"I'm not entirely sure this is true, but the Nigerians made sure that the Biafrans would not launch an attack while we were there."

In another incident, after Pelé was dismissed in a match played in the Brazilian League, the fans rebelled and left the referee in a difficult situation. Thereupon, Pelé returned to the game 15 minutes later. The most striking thing, in this case, is that no penal action was taken against the referee, and even the referee was appreciated.

He is the first player to win the 2013 FIFA Ballon d'Or Prix d'Honneur.