Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé, is considered one of the best football players ever. He was considered the perfect footballer, as he was fully two-footed, very productive in finishing, excellent at dribbling and passing, an excellent tackler for a striker. In other words, he was technically exceptional, known for his lightning speed and his strength on the ball. By the time he retired in 1977, he had scored more than a thousand goals and won three World Cups (1958, 1962 and 1970). Pelé's success was not easy. He was born in Tres Coracoes, Brazil, to a very poor family. His father, Joao Ramos do Nascimento, was also a footballer until he broke his leg, ending his football career. Pelé started playing football at an early age. When he was a child, Pelé and his family moved to Bauru, in the interior of the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, where he learned to master the art of football. At fifteen he watched his father play football for hours, hoping that one day he too would become a professional player. Pelé played football with his neighborhood friends, often going barefoot and improvising with coconuts as balls and cans as goal posts. Pelé started playing football for a local team when he was a teenager. He was discovered at the age of 11 by one of the country's players, Waldemar de Brito. It was he who brought Pelé to Bauru, Sao Paulo, and told club officials that he would become one of the greatest players in the world. Waldemar was right, Pelé's impact was immediate. In his first professional appearance with the team, he immediately scored a goal. He was only sixteen. At seventeen he was selected to play for the Brazilian national team in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden and amazed the world by being the player who scored the most goals, including two in the championship match. help Brazil win their first world title. He was only seventeen and already a legend. Four years later he played for the Brazilian national team at the World Cup in Chile, but an injury suffered in the first match of the tournament prevented him from helping Brazil win its second World Cup. title. Many clubs around the world offered a lot of money to sign the young and promising player, but the government of Brazil declared Pele an official national treasure to prevent him from signing a contract in another country.