The "King" of football died on December 29 at the age of 82.
Pelé is not his real name, but the nickname attributed to him from his earliest childhood, as is commonly done in Brazil.
Only 3 years old, the one who will one day become the greatest legend of Brazilian football, already encourages the players of Vasco de Gama FC, where his father plays as an amateur footballer.
He then notices that his young son is shouting “
Pile!
to Bilé, the club's goalkeeper.
The anecdote remains and so does the nickname, but it gradually turns into “
Pelé
”.
Nickname that the interested party will not appreciate (“
I thought that Pelé sounded horribly my
l”, he confided) and that his opponents use in his youth to make him angry during his street matches.
Read alsoFootball legend “King” Pelé is dead
The story of the star's real name, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, is no less original.
When he was born, his father wanted to call him "
Edison
", in homage to Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb.
Electricity arrived very recently in his family's village.
But two different spellings, “
Edison
” and “
Edson
” are registered respectively on the register of civil status and on the baptismal certificate of the parish.
We will finally keep “
Edson
”.
Ironically, Pelé owes his legendary nickname... to a goalkeeper!
Them he treated bluntly throughout his career, with 1283 goals scored.
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