Pele Best Moments of All Time

In the world of football, South America is recognized as a region where talent is on the rise. There has been no question about the recently deceased Pele and Diego Armando Maradona's position at the top among the many talented players from Brazil and Argentina. In this post, we'll pay tribute to Pele, a Brazilian legend, and examine some of his greatest performances.

Read the post through to the end if you'd want more information and are interested in learning about most memorable moments of Pele.

Pele greatest moments ever

Pele just died as a result of his uncontrollable disease, which forced this legend to surrender and leave his earthly body for a better one. Because of this tragic event, we are even more eager to revisit some of this legend's best moments.

First senior career match

Born in 1940, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, who you know him as “Pele” started his awesome career when he was a teenager. In 1956, de Brito took Pelé to

, an industrial city near São Paulo, to try out for professional club Santos FC, telling the directors at Santos that the 15-year-old would be "the greatest football player in the world."

Pelé impressed Santos coach, Lula, during his trial and signed a professional contract with the club in June 1956. One of

Pele best moments of all time

was when he made his senior team debut on 7 September 1956 at the age of 15 against Corinthians Santo Andre. Pele had an impressive performance in the 7–1 victory at that match, scoring the first goal in his prolific career during the match.

First international cap

The next on the list of

Pele greatest moments ever

is certainly his first match in the Brazil’s shirt. Ten months after signing a professional contract with Santos FC, the teenager was called up to the Brazil national team.

Pelé's first international match was a 2–1 defeat against Argentina on 7 July 1957 at the Maracana. In that match, Pele scored his first goal for Brazil aged just 16 years and nine months, and he still remains the youngest goal scorer for his country in the history.

1958 World Cup Victory

Here is the next item on our list of Pele Best Moments of All Time.

Could a 17-year-old starlet perform on the biggest stage in the world? The talented Pele simply did this. Having lost a World Cup final eight years before, Brazil finally clinched their first World Cup trophy in 1958 with a secret weapon in the form of a 17-year-old. The 1958 edition saw Pelé impress the world and leave a mark on the football history as a teenager.

Although Pele missed the competition’s first two matches due to an injury, he returned to the Brazil starting line-up at the last group match and made a remarkable impact in the knockout stage to secure the first World Cup title for his national team. The youngster scored the winning goal against Wales in the quarter-finals, and completed a stunning hat-trick to defeat

in the semifinals.

This was not the end of his shining, as Pele produced one of the greatest goals that the World Cup has ever seen, bringing down a high cross on his chest, flicking the ball over the head of an onrushing defender, and then slamming home a clinical volley. He later doubled his tally, as Brazil won 5-2 to lift the nation's first ever World Cup trophy.

Pelé, who was just seventeen on this day, remains the youngest player to ever participate and score in a World Cup final. For all these reasons, the 1958 final match is one of

Pele greatest world cup moments

.

The Superstar of Copa America

The 1959 South American Championships - or the Copa America - was the one that got away for Pelé during his outstanding career. But he doesn't beat himself up about the trophy. The Copa America was not the prestigious event it is nowadays, and the tournament was so poorly organised that it was hard to take it seriously.

But Pelé lit up the competition in 1959, fresh off the back of being crowned a champion of the world. Although Brazil failed to win the South American Championships, finishing a point behind Argentina, Pele impressed anyone in the continent, scoring eight goals and being named player of the tournament. This was the story, through which one of Pele best moments of all time happened.

Copa Libertadores Success with Santos

Having won the Brazilian league title in 1961, Santos qualified for the 1962 Copa Libertadores - a competition they had never won before. That was all about to change. Santos cruised through the opening round, and edged past Universidad Católica in the semis.

Awaiting the Brazilians in the final was Uruguayan side Peñarol, and they competed in a dramatic three-game playoff. Santos won the total battle, thanks to a brace from Pelé in the final match. The striker scored four in the entire competition and

Best moments of Pele’s career

saw a new sample. He led his club win their first Copa Libertadores trophy ever. They wouldn't have to wait long for their second success either, which arrived only a year later.

Winning 1962 World Cup

Brazil national team entered the seventh edition of World Cup in Chile, as the title defenders. Although 1962 didn’t become as memorable as the previous edition of World Cup for Brazil and Pele, the most important thing was their success to repeat the victory and winning back to back World Cups.

This achievement made the 1962 World Cup final match one of Pele greatest moments ever. They did something that only Italy had done it previously and no other team after them have reached yet. Beating Czechoslovakia in the final match, Brazil and their superstar celebrated their second championship in the greatest football competition in the world. Let's carry on to the next item on our list of 

pele best moments of all time

.

Winning 1970 World Cup

We could devote a single independent article to Pele’s career fabulous moments just from the 1970 World Cup. Having initially refused to play for the Brazil national team in 1969, the superstar helped the Seleção qualify for the 1970 World Cup. The tournament was nothing short of iconic and at the ending day, one of Pele greatest world cup moments happened.

Pelé came close on a few occasions to scoring the most remarkable goal of his career, particularly against Uruguay, as he ran onto an incisive pass, but opted to dummy the ball, rounding the baffled and stranded goalkeeper. Unbelievably, Pelé failed to find the net through his final touch, firing wide with the whole goal to aim at.

Similarly as one of the other

Pele best moments of all time

against Czechoslovakia, the star went for the spectacular, shooting from just inside his own half. The crowd held its breath in anticipation, but his effort dropped narrowly wide. But he did find the net too, of course. Pelé smashed in a lovely outside of the boot free-kick against Romania, and he starred in the 4-1 final victory over Italy, laying on the final pass for Carlos Alberto's famous team goal, and scoring a brilliant header of his own.

He also provoked the greatest save of all time from Gordon Banks, and forced Bobby Moore into putting in one of the finest defensive displays in history. We can give him credit for both of those.

While it has been 50 years since Pelé won the World Cup trophy for the last time, he is still the only man in the football history to win three World Cup medals.

The 1000th goal

Believe it or not, Edson Arantes do Nascimento amassed over 1,000 goals in his career, and upon achieving this monumental feat, sparked a pitch invasion and the game had to be stopped for 20 minutes.

​Well, that's exactly what happened and what place to achieve a milestone like that better than the Maracana? In 1969, Pelé was stuck on 999 goals. After failing to hit the special 1,000 in two matches, the triumph came at the Maracana against Vasco de Gama, when Santos earned a spot-kick.

Although he had previously claimed that 'a penalty is a cowardly way to score', Pelé put those extreme emotions behind him to slot the ball home and notch number 1,000. Pelé just had time to kiss the ball, before teammates, opposition and fans swarm towards him and carry him on a lap of honor around the stadium. That was absolutely a touching moment among Pele best moments of all time.

Another fact is that according to France Football magazine, who organise the Ballon d'Or, Pele was on seven awards and leading the pack ahead of

and

, who relatively have six and five Ballon d’Or awards.

Until 1995, only European footballers were eligible to win the Ballon d'Or. Pretty unfair, so France Football changed that rule and opened up the award to truly honor the world's best.

Then in 2016, they went back and did an "international re-evaluation" to calculate who should have won the Ballon d'Or had it always been global - and gave Pele seven: for 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964 and 1970.

They only did this in years when a non-European player deserved to win overall. As a result, Diego Maradona (twice), Romario, Mario Kempes and Garrincha joined Pele on the honorary winners list.

France Football even printed a magazine cover of Pele with his golden trophies and the headline: "Pele 7 Ballon d'Ors".

It is not wrong if we say that players like Pele and Maradona are unique icons of football history and their achievements and skills will be unreachable for majority of players or even superstars for lifetime. This was our article about Most memorable moments of Pele. 

We are believed that the last memorable moment of pele would be his legendary match against Maradona in Heaven, a 90 minute unbothered match for the passed away fans of these two.

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