How did legendary footballer Pele get his name?
Football maestro Pele has been hospitalised recently amidst the ongoing FIFA World Cup. Suffering from colon cancer since last year, this 82-year-old football icon has been undergoing treatment. While the world wishes him a speedy recovery, let us tell you the interesting story behind Pele’s unique name.
Pele was born as Edson Arantes do Nascimento at Minas Gerais Brazil on 23rd October 1940. Labelled as “the greatest” by FIFA, he is one of the most successful players that the world of football has ever seen. Part of Time’s list of 100 most important people of the 20th century, Pele spent his professional life as a forward. He was also conferred the honour of being World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) in 2000. Additionally, he was the joint recipient of FIFA Player of the Century with Argentina’s Diego Maradona.
Naming of Pele
As mentioned earlier, Pele was born as Edson Arantes do Nascimento. Now, the name Edson was inspired by distinguished American inventor Thomas Edison who pioneered electricity. In fact, the year Pele was born was also the year when Brazil first welcomed the marvel of electricity, in all its glory. What’s interesting here is that, Pele’s parents removed the ‘i’ from Edison to make is sound unique. But as fate would have it, his name got printed as Edison on the birth certificate.
Although his parents tried to change it over the course of years, especially during his school days, they failed to do so. Pele too was disheartened to see his parents struggle with his official name over and over again and requested them for a nickname he could use. This is when he received the name Dico. While Dico stuck around for years, Pele gradually started developing his interest in football. In fact, he was particularly a fan and close follower of Bile, the professional and popular goalkeeper of local Brazilian football team Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama or simply Vasco da Gama. But guess what? Pele could never pronounce his name as he used to stammer during his school days. He kept mispronouncing it as Pele and his friends and peers started joking about it. The more he complained, the more it stuck around. And the rest, as they say, is history!
When Pele became a professional footballer and slowly started to make a name for himself, he himself chose the name ‘Pele’ to remind himself of all the times he was ridiculed and never allow anyone else to do the same in his lifetime. Needless to say, the name Pele is now a legacy that stands in its own merit.
Interestingly, in his life-story Pele: The Autobiography, Pele mentioned how his name as such had no meaning. What’s fascinating though is that, if it’s indeed a derivation of Bile, it may have a meaning similar to it as well. Guess what Bile means in Hebrew? Miracle!
Pele's Guinness World Records
Besides a bag full of professional football accolades, Pele also has not one but three Guinness World Records to his name. The first is Most Career Goals by an Individual which stands at 1279 in 1363 games within a span of two decades only. Impressive, right? The other record is for having the Most World Cup Winners’ Medals, that is 3. He was part of the Brazil’s winning team in 1958, 1962 and 1970. The final record is even more appealing. He was the youngest player to have ever played, scored and won in a World Cup Final at the age of 17 years and 249 days.
Interestingly, Pele also has an honorary knighthood conferred to him by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1997. But he could never use the title ‘Sir’ before his name, as he wasn’t a British citizen.