Pelé

Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Pelé (1940-2022), was born on October 23 in the city of Tres Coraçoes, 300 kilometers northwest of Rio de Janeiro. Nicknamed "Pelé" by his schoolmates for mispronouncing the name of a local soccer player, he grew up in a very poor area of Rio's suburbs. With no money to buy a soccer ball, he had to make it himself out of a sock stuffed with newspapers. His father, who was a professional soccer player, taught him to play soccer and saved up to buy his first ball by working in local tearooms. He quickly rose through the youth leagues to be considered a future star. When, at the age of sixteen, he was the top scorer in the Brazilian soccer league, the Brazilian president declared him a "national treasure." This was just the beginning of what became known as his jogo bonito: an artistic and fluid way of playing that had very little to do with hard-hitting football, and that conveyed healthy sportsmanship and a willingness to share joy. of soccer. He went on to score more than a thousand goals in his career as a professional soccer player and, thanks to his talent, the Brazilian national team won three World Cup victories. When he retired, he was named a United Nations Ambassador for Ecology and the Environment and was also a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, a position in which he worked with children who had grown up in poverty like him. He is considered one of the most iconic footballers in history.