Pele Book Report

Mr. Roman
Eng 1, Per. 1
September 24, 2013
Summary
My book project is on the life of the great soccer player Pele. Pele’s real name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento and he was born on October 23, 1940. He was born into a poor family in Brazil and his dad was an average professional football player. Soccer is called Football in every other country but the United States of America. Pele’s dad’s name was Joao Ramos and his mom’s name is Dona Celeste.
Pele’s dad was very important to Pele’s beginning soccer years and would work with him and train him how to play correct soccer. He would practice for many hours heading, passing, and all the other arts of the game. Most of the rest of Pele’s spare time was taken up with playing soccer or with
fighting. Pele’s dad told him to not smoke or drink it would mess up his condition if he wanted to play Professional football.
His dads message didn’t mean anything to him.
He went with some friends and one of his friends ask if Pele can buy him some cigarettes, but Pele tried one and he felt really bad. When he told his dad he promised he would never touch another cigarette ever again after that one.
When Pele was a teenager he was still small and only five feet tall and 145 pounds, but he was really talented. Pelé played for Bauru AC until 1956. Then, when he was fifteen years old. He left home to play for Santos FC in the city of São Paulo. He ended up playing for Santos for most of his career. Santos was the most successful and widely recognized team worldwide.
He played for the Brazilian national team, in competitions and exhibitions, from 1958 until 1974. In 1958, he was selected to play in the World Cup for Brazil. He became the youngest player to play in a World Cup final match at 17 years and 249 days. He scored two goals in the final as Brazil beat Sweden 5–2. His first goal, a lob over a defender followed by a precise volley shot, was selected as one of the best goals in the history of the World Cup. He finished the tournament with six goals in four matches played, tied for second place, behind record-breaker Just Fontaine, and was named young player of the
tournament.
In the 1962 World Cup he was rated as the best player in the world at the time. In the first match of the 1962 World Cup, against Mexico, Pelé assisted the first goal and then scored the second one, after a run past four defenders, to go up 2–0. He injured himself while attempting a long-range shot against Czechoslovakia. This would keep him out of the rest of the tournament, but Brazil still won their second World Cup title.
For his national team he has scored a total of 77 goals. After the 1972 season Pele retired from the national time. Two years later Pele came out from the retirement and Joined New York Cosmos. Pele finally retired from football in the year 1977.
In 1993, Pelé was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame and is the former ambassador of sports in Brazil. He has also done extensive work for children's causes through UNICEF.
In 2000, Pelé was named second for the "Sportsman of the Century" award. The legendary Muhammad Ali got the honors.