Telling Pelè with numbers may seem paradoxical, given his fame and the suggestion that one feels just pronouncing his name.
However, it is another way of seeing his story and his unrepeatable career, which leaves an indelible mark on the history of football.
O Rei, the King, Edson Arantes do Nascimento received the honors as Footballer of the Century for Fifa, for the International Olympic Committee and for the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (Iffhs), Fifa Ballon d'Or as best player of the last century, and also honorary Fifa Ballon d'Or, or for his career.
With Santos he won the Paulista championship ten times, the Rio-São Paulo tournament four times, and the "Taça Brasil", or Brazilian Cup, five times.
And also two Libertadores, two Intercontinental Cups and a Super Cup.
With the New York Cosmos he won a Nasl Championship, launching 'soccer' in North America.
Pelé is the only footballer in the world to have won three World Cups (1958, 1962 and 1970).
Fifa recognizes his record for career goals, 1,281 in 1,363 games;
in competitive matches he scored 757 goals in 816 matches, with an average of 0.93 goals per game.
In the green-gold national team he played 92 games and scored 77 goals.
A curiosity: his Brazilian Football Federation (Cbf) card, number 18,769, has the date of birth as October 23, 1941, but a Brazilian newspaper discovered that in the registry office of the town of Tres Coracoes, in the state of Minas Gerais, his birth it is registered on 21 October 1940.
He made his debut on 7 September 1956, almost sixteen years old, in the first team of Santos, in a friendly match against Corinthians of Santo Andre', immediately scoring the first goal.
He played his last game on October 1, 1977, at Giants Stadium in New York, once with the Cosmos shirt and once with Santos;
for the record, with victory for the US team and his goal, the last one, in the first half.
After his sports career, his participation in the film "Escape for Victory" (1981) by John Huston remains memorable, in which he scores - obviously - the decisive goal for the team of anti-Nazi prisoners, in an overhead kick.
He was also involved in politics, called to the Ministry of Sport by the then President of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso from 1995 to 1998. He He did approve the law (which bears his name) which abolished the "card" of the players.
