Teenage Pele.. and the beginning of the legend

Jan Bernal On the 8th of August 1956, a shy, scrawny 15-year-old arrived at Santos FC.

Less than two years later, Pele presented the first World Cup for Brazil and crowned himself "King", to write as a teenager the first line in the career of a legend.

It all started 500 kilometers away from that port city of Bauru.

It was there, within the neighborhoods of the state of São Paulo, that Edson Arantes do Nascimento was born, who was born on October 23, 1940 in Tres Corasues, in the neighboring state of Minas Gerais.

Pele was born to Dona Celeste and Dondinho, who was a player whose football career ended due to a knee injury.

The same legend says that when he saw his father crying on the day of "Maracanazo", when Uruguay won the 1950 World Cup by defeating Brazil (2-1) in Rio de Janeiro, his father promised to console him that he would win the World Cup.

Waiting for the promise to be fulfilled, the "king" began to build his playing style and techniques in informal clubs and even in "piladas", that is, matches played in vacant lots or in the street where the fun of the game and the art of the ball are rooted.

Pele, nicknamed "Deco" in his youth, shone to the extreme.

In his debut game for the Radeon, he scored eight goals, astonishing the city's amateur soccer league.

Journalist Luiz Carlos Cordero says in his book "Pele de Bauro" (1997): The legend was prevented from crossing the midfield completely, so as not to destroy the championship!

Bauru AC, the city's biggest club, brought the footballing prodigy to the ranks of its cubs, "Baquinho", which made the team dominate the competition through its superstar striker for several years, until Pele appeared in the local newspapers at that time.

First game, first goal

Bauru AC coach Valdemar de Brito, a former professional who competed in the 1934 World Championship, believed in the talent of the goalscorer and quick dribbler with extraordinary technique, so much so that he persuaded Santos to sign the fifteen-year-old to a professional contract.

But his mother hesitated.

And to convince Dona Celeste, we "lied" to her about a training camp, Pele's sister Maria Lucia said during the opening of the Legend Museum in June 2014.

Discreet, serious and talented with diligence, the young striker made his professional debut on the 7th of September 1956 in a friendly match against Corinthians Santo Andrés (7-1), just a month after his arrival.

Pele entered the second half and scored a goal as usual.

It was the day of Brazil's independence.

The prodigy developed himself in the junior team, until the tragedy occurred when he missed a penalty kick in the decisive match of the competition, in which his team finished in second place, and he became frustrated.

According to the biography "King Pele" written by Alain Fontaine, which recounts those stages, Pele wrote to his parents, "I now know that I can never be a great footballer. I was not born for this career, and the evidence has just appeared."

Despite this, he continued his career and officially joined the professional team in January 1957. But the youngster played nine consecutive matches without scoring any goal, which is his worst series in the 18 years of his career in Santos!

His first four months were difficult, scoring just six goals in 21 matches, and doubts began to grip him.

May 15, 1957

On that date, he conquered the news and freed himself forever.

At the Morumbi Stadium in Sao Paulo, Santos defeated its old rival, Palmeiras, 3-0, with two goals for the teenager.

The first raised the astonishment of the press, so Pele's name was imprinted in the memory.

A month after this first earthquake in the huge city, the scene was repeated in Rio, where Pele led his team to crush Belenenses (6-1) in the Maracana, scoring a new resounding brace, which impressed the local newspapers.

There he was spotted by Silvio Pirillo, appointed to the "Seleção" national team, for the next World Cup.

On July 7, 1957, at the age of 16 years and 9 months, during his first international match with Brazil in the "Roca Cup" competition against Argentina at the Maracana Stadium, Pele, substitute, scored his first of his 77 goals with "Seleção".

Three days later, he started this time, leaving the match with a new goal in the opponent's own goal.

The history of the only three-time world champion has begun to write glorious pages.

The end of that year was the permission for the emergence of the phenomenon, as Pele won the title of top scorer in the Sao Paulo Championship.

"The King" on the Santos website recalls that period by saying, "Since my first tournament, I've scored 36 goals (in 29 matches, including the preliminary rounds). For a boy of 16, then 17, that was an incredible achievement."

Or, in short, one of the last steps to claim the World Cup throne.

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