Pelé
Brazilian footballer (1940–2022)
Edson Arantes do Nascimento (23 October 1940 – 29 December 2022), better known by his nickname Pelé, was a Brazilian professional footballer who played as a forward. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in history, he was among the most successful and popular sports figures of the 20th century. His 1,279 goals in 1,363 games, which includes exhibition games, is recognised as a Guinness World Record. In 1999, he was named Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee and was included in the Time list of the 100 most important people of the 20th century. In 2000, Pelé was voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) and was one of the two joint winners of the FIFA Player of the Century, alongside Diego Maradona.
Pelé began playing for the Brazilian club Santos at age 15, and for the Brazil national team at 16. During his international career, he won three FIFA World Cup titles – in 1958, 1962, and 1970 – becoming the only player to do so and the youngest to win a World Cup, at just 17 years old. He was nicknamed "O Rei" ("the King") following the 1958 World Cup. With 77 goals in 92 games for Brazil, Pelé held the record as the national team's top goalscorer for over fifty years. At club level, Pelé is Santos' all-time top goalscorer with 643 goals in 659 games.
“Pelé” enters the record as brazilian footballer (1940–2022). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pelé, Brazilian and footballer can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Pelé” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Pelé, Brazilian and footballer provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q12897. VIAF identifies the subject as 59087501. The Library of Congress control number is n80145774. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1940, 2022, 1999 and 2000.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Pelé” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.