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Play Soccer with Pelé
No other athlete in history has dominated and defined the sport he played as did Pelé.
Gifted with blinding speed, uncanny balance, tremendous vision, power and accuracy in both feet,
Pelé rose to mythical proportions and became the greatest soccer player of all times.
Born Edison Arantes do Nascimento, the world discovered Pelé in Sweden in 1958 as the 17-year old
boy who brought home the first of an unprecedented three World Cup titles to his native Brazil.
He concluded his legendary career almost 20 years later, finishing with 1,282 goals in 1364 games.
But his natural artistry on the field was matched by his leadership and charisma off of it. In 1987
he received the International Peace Award, and in 1980 an international panel named him Sportsman of
the Century.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Now and then I stop to think. I think of people, the world which surrounds us
and God. Are we what people say we are? I sometimes think that I am not the man
that people say I am. I am sure of one thing - I am not alone. I owe what I am today
to many people. They all, in their different ways, taught me something.
I only became what I am today because I was helped, encouraged, advised, taught, stimulated
and criticized. With this book, in which the subjects are by no means fully dealt with,
I hope repay a little of that which others have given me.
I hope that this answers the question which has been asked by so many people - "Pelé, why
are you writing a book?" I have accepted the ball that was passed to me and I have taken
it a little bit further through my personal experience which has lasted seventeen years.
In this way I am trying to give the future generations, especially the young who are just
starting to love life and sports, a sort of inheritance of soccer technique. This will
include basic moves in soccer such as passing, kicking, 'killing the ball', heading, etc.
I don't believe there is such a thing as a 'born' soccer player. Perhaps you are born with
certain skills and talents, but quite frankly it seems impossible to me that one is actually
born to be an ace soccer player. Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance,
learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.
It is because of this that I decided to help youngsters with my experience. That's why this
book exists.
To help me pass on my experience to you I have received a great deal of assistance from
photographers, designers, editors, experts in lay-out and production, colleagues, distributors
and others. But the most important person is you, for whom this book has been created.
In life none of us is alone. We are always part of a team and each one has his own special
function. Every individual is important.
Perhaps some of you will be disappointed not to find many new ideas in this manual. Soccer
is a sport which consists of simple ingredients. We often forget this simplicity. This
book is about the fundamental components of the game. This simplicity helped me to understand
soccer.
Although we do not know the actual origin of soccer, we do know certain things about its history.
The game as it is today evolved very gradually and a form of soccer is said to have been played
many centuries before Christ. In China a game resembling soccer existed as long as 2500 B.C..
Egyptian pictures show people playing a game like soccer. But it was actually in Greece that
a definite game began which eventually had a name - Spiskiros.
Soccer officially arrived in Brazil in 1894. It was introduced by Charles Miller, a Brazilian of
English parentage. There is no need to tell you that soccer spread in Brazil and throughout the
rest of the world. Neither I who was playing, nor those original founders of soccer, could
have imagined that 800 million would see the memorable game between Brazil and Italy in the
1970 World Cup Final! More people today play this universal game than any other sport. It is
because of this that I have been given the opportunity of traveling to every corner of the world.
I now want to share with you the experience I have gained from these marvelous seventeen years.
The most important thing I have learned is that essentially sport is the best medium through
which we can communicate. I saw the world because of soccer and got to know things and,
more important, I got to know people. All these people that I have met have made me have faith
in the future of mankind. I believe that one day we will be able to unite in a team, a greater
team called humanity.
It seems that the Romans, when conquering Greece, learned the game and brought it back to Rome
and called it Harpastum. In the Middle Ages the game appeared in France in the provinces of
Brittany and Normandy under the name of Soule, in which they used a ball stuffed with bran
or hay. It was an extremely violent game which allowed kicking, tripping up and even punching.
Even today there are a lot of players who think they are playing Soule! A little later in the
Middle Ages a game called Calcio began in Italy and this name is still used for soccer by many
Italians. The skillful sport which we know today really began in the 19th century.
It was in England that modern soccer originated. At the beginning there was rather a lot of
confusion and much discussion between those in favor of soccer played with the hands - rugby -
and soccer played with the feet. The issue was settled in 1863, when those supporting the
game played with the feet founded The Football Association to standardize the rules which have
been followed ever since. The other group created Rugby Union, thereby finally separating the
two games in 1871. From then on both sports began to develop an attract more supporters.
The Federation Internationle de Football Association (FIFA) was founded in 1904. FIFA had the
task of supervising the structure and administration of a sport which was beginning to spread
throughout the world. The International Board set the rules of the game which cannot be changed
without the approval of all the countries belonging to FIFA. In 1920 soccer was included in
the Olympic games in Antwerp, Belgium and in 1930 the first World Cup was won by Uruguay.
1974
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We expect you already know that Pelé was born on the 23rd of October,
1940 in Tres Coracoes, Minas Gerias. He spent his childhood in the city of
Bauru, the state of Sao Paulo. In 1956 he came to Santos where his trainer
was Waldemar de Brito. Two years later, when he was only seventeen years old,
he was awarded the World Cup winner's medal. And you all know what happened
after that. Pelé became the greatest athlete in the world and most talented
of all soccer players. Up until now he has broken all the records in soccer
and if all his successes were written down they would fill an encyclopedia.