October 23

"Pele" Edson Arantes do Nascimento

On October 23, 1940, Pele whose full name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento was born in Tres Coracoes, Minas Gerais, Brazil.  Pele is considered by many to be the greatest soccer player or footballer to ever play the game.

Pele is a retired Brazililan professional footballer who is the most successful league scorer in the world with 541 league goals.  He has a total of 1281 goals in 1363 games.  He was a part of three Brazilian World Cup-Champion teams.  The greatest soccer player in the world grew up in poverty and learned the game from his father playing with a sock stuffed with newspaper.  The child who could not afford a football, would eventually become the highest paid athlete in the world. Pele played professionally for Santos in Brazil from 1956 -1974 and the New York Cosmos from 1975 - 1977.