Pele Net Worth, Money and More – The Football Legend
Pele Net Worth: $18 Millions
Career/Profession: Soccer Player
“I was born to play football, just like Beethoven was born to write music and Michelangelo was born to paint.”
– Pele
The famous soccer player Pele is among those legendary personalities whose name does not needs to be associated with details. ‘The black pearl’, ‘The king of Football’, ‘The king Pele’, were the several titles given to him In his honour. Pele professionally played for Brazilian national football team for two decades. 73 year old Pele is claimed to be the most successful football player of all time. His full name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento.
Early Life
Pele was born on 21st October 1940 in Três Corações, Brazil. He was the oldest of two children of Dondinho and Dona Celeste Arantes. Pele got his gaming skills from his father who was a footballer. His parents gave him nickname “Dico”. He is reported to get this nickname ‘Pele’ during his early school days from his favourite player Bile (local goalkeeper) which he misspoke as Pele.
Pele spent his childhood in poverty. He could not afford to buy a football and practiced with sock stuffed with newspaper or grapefruit. He earned his pocket money by working for a tea shop.
Career
Pele’s professional career started at the age of 15 when he began playing for a Brazilian Club, Santos where he scored four goals on his league debut match. At the age of 16 he joined Brazil national football team and in the succeeding year when he was 17 he became the youngest ever winner of the world cup. Pele played grabbed three football world cups for Brazil (in the year 1958, 1962, and 1970) in his two decades of professional career. After his service to Brazilian national football team Pele signed a $7 million deal for 3 years with New York Cosmos of North American Soccer League. In a year New York was among the top with Pele’s effort. In the year 1977, the New York Cosmos won the league championship and with this victory Pele bid a due to his playing career and retired.
Pele scored total of 1281 goals in 1363 matches played for which he got a place in Guinness World Records for the most career goals scored in football. On 19th November 1969 Pele scored his 1000th career goal and since then 19th November is known as Pele day at Santos.
Honors
In 1991 Pele was voted as ‘World player of the century’ by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics.
In 1997, he was given an honorary British Knighthood.
In 1999, Pele was elected “Athlete of the Century” by the IOC.
Pele was appointed as the minister of sports in Brazil during the year 1995-1998.
In 2000, Pele was named second in the BBC’s “Sportsman of the Century” award.
In 2010 he was declared honorary president of New York Cosmos.
Love Game play
The famous football player contributed a fair deal to his love life too with several link ups and break ups. On 21 February, 1966 Pelé married Rosemeri dos Reis Cholbi. They had two daughters and a son and further the couple separated in 1982 after 16 years of marriage. During the same time Pele was involved in launching 17 year old model Xuxa with whom he was linked up in between the year 1981-1986.
Again in April 1994 Pele married psychologist and singer Assíria Lemos Seixas, who gave birth 1996 to twins through fertility treatments. And the couple finally separated.
Charity and Social Causes
Pele has been undertaking various ventures to reduce scandals in football eradicate poverty and help children. He in introduced a law to reduce corruption in Brazilian football which is known as Pele law. Pele has worked as a UNICEF Goodwill ambassador and as a United Nations ambassador, working to protect the environment and fight corruption in Brazil. He worked for children’s causes through UNICEF. He has been a patron of the ABC Trust since 2002 and has donated a number of signed items.
And…
Leaving no stones unturned in soccer Pele became the most remarkable and legendary football player. But his career did not dissolute after his retirement. Along with actively participating in campaigns, social causes and fitting best to the role of international football brand ambassador Pele contributed in Literature too. Pele has published several autobiographies, starred in documentary and semi-documentary films, and composed musical pieces, including the entire soundtrack for the film Pele in 1977. He remarked his appearance in the movie ‘Escape to Victory’ (1981), based on World War II, about a team of prisoners of war who play their Nazi captors in a football match.
Quotes
Some of the famous and realistic statements quoted by Pele that remarked themselves on different wakes of life are:
Pele on being a role-model: “Every kid around the world who plays soccer wants to be Pele. I have a great responsibility to show them not just how to be like a soccer player, but how to be like a man.”
Pele on achievement: “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.”
Pele on winning: “If you are first you are first. If you are second, you are nothing.”
