Pelé Net Worth, Early Career, Philanthropy, And More

Pelé is one of the most revered names in the history of football. The Brazilian football player rose to prominence in the late 1950s. It was due to his forward skills and winning the FIFA championships three times in three decades that he played football. He is the youngest player to score a goal in football history. However, the legend is not in great shape these days. Since November 2022, the football icon’s Cancer has elevated to the next stage worsening his health.

The life of the football star was not that of a smooth-sailing one. He has had many downs in life that Pelé has, in retrospect, regrets about. In 2021, Netflix released a documentary ‘Pelé’ chronicling his rise to fame in football and his controversial personal life. Despite the hindrances, the player has held some important records and dabbled into philanthropy space as well to give back to Brazil and uplift the poverty-stricken country. Let’s go through his life and career trajectory.

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Net Worth Of Pelé

According to multiple sources, the net worth of Pelé is $100 million. He had one of the greatest and most successful careers of all time. The Brazilian football player had the genes of an athlete. He is regarded as the youngest football player to score a goal in the history of FIFA. In 1957, Pelé scored a goal against Argentina.

There is a lot of discrepancy over the goals he has scored in his career. He has scored a total of 680 goals for Santos FC and at the international level, he has a tally of 77 goals.

According to the Guinness Book of World, Pelé has scored 1,279 goals in his entire career making the player with the most goals in his career. But, Pelé has claimed that he scored 1,283 goals in his “life”.

Apart from his world-class and enviable football career, he has also forayed into the entrepreneurial space. He had a construction business, which went down pretty quickly. But, he rendered his name to a Brazilian coffee brand called ‘Café Pele’, which the Brazilian Coffee Institute endorsed around Europe.

It was so popular that Saddam Hussein had it on his list of essentials when in exile. He has also endorsed Puma. The shoe company gave him $25000 for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico to just tie the laces of the sneaker during a heated rivalry between Puma and Adidas. He endorsed Volkswagen after becoming the ambassador in 2013, Hublot, and Subway.

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Early Life And Career Of Pelé

Pelé who was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento in Três Corações in Brazil on October 23, 1940. He was born in a family where his father João Ramos do Nascimento aka Dondinho was a center forward for Brazil. He got his real name ‘Edson’ because it was around the time of his birth that his village received electricity.

So, to pay respect to Thomas Edison, his father named him Edson. But, he got his nickname, which he eventually used in his professional career, Pelé, because he mispronounced one of his father’s teammates and goalkeeper Bilé’s name. So, his friends started calling him Pelé.

Pelé’s father was his mentor and coach who helped him excel in the sport. Professionally, he started playing for the local club Santos FC. Eventually, he made his way up in the league. When he was 17 years old, he scored a goal becoming the youngest in the Brazilian league. Despite many offers from elite clubs, he remained loyal to his club and national team. Santos FC won the Intercontinental Cup in 1962 and the Copa Libertadores in 1963.

However, the New York Cosmos signed him after 1974. In his international career, he has won three FIFA World Cups. The first one was in 1958 when he scored two goals making the team win their first World Cup, and then in 1962. When he played his last game before retirement, he did not let the team down and helped Brazil to win the tournament in 1970 against Italy.

Awards Won By Pelé

In 1970, when Pelé was retiring, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) honored the player with the ‘BBC Overseas Sports Personality Of The Year’. In 1993, he was a fellow inductee at the National Soccer Hall of Fame. He played for the New York Cosmos leading them to win the 1977 North American Soccer League. The International Olympic Committee named him the Athlete Of The Century in 1999. Pelé has never actually won the Ballon d’Or, but in 2014, he received an honorary Ballon d’Or for his contributions to the sport.

Philanthropy Work Done By Pelé

The football star grew up in an impoverished household. So, he made a conscious decision to give back to society, especially to children who are poor and lack resources and access to education. Along with social equity, he was environmentally conscious. He was an Ecology and Environmental ambassador for the United Nations. He received the International Peace Award from the UN in 1978. Pelé has always strived to fight against corruption. In 1997, he was also appointed as the Sports Minister of Brazil.

The GOAT has lent his support to the organization inspired by Mandela, 46664, which helps to heal from HIV/AIDS. The Littlest Lamb is an organization that helps orphans in Egypt and shelters them. In 2018, he collaborated with ‘charity: water’ and ‘Pencils of Promise’ to start his organization ‘The Pelé Foundation’. The aim is to aid other organizations in their “dedicated efforts to empower children, specifically around poverty and education”.

Marriage

Pelé has admitted that he has been an infidel when it came to his personal life and marriages. In his Netflix documentary ‘Pelé’, he said, “In all honesty, I’ve had a few affairs, some of which resulted in children, but I’ve only learned about them later”. He was married to Rosemeri dos Reis Cholbi and Assíria Lemos Seixas. Pelé had three children from his first marriage—Kelly, Edinho, and Jennifer. With Seixas, he had twins— Joshua and Celeste. He is also a father to Flavia Kurtz from an extramarital affair with Lenita Kurtz. But, in 2016, he got married to Marcia Cibele Aoki, a Japanese-Brazilian woman, whom he met in the 1980s at a party in New York as per The Sun.

House

Pelé was residing in a Hamptons mansion, which he listed for $3.25 million. It is not confirmed, but the former football player returned to Brazil after his retirement and has been living in Minas Gerais in Brazil.

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