Profiles

Footballing great Pele has came to Sheffield as a guest of honour for a match between Sheffield FC and Inter Milan. This was part of the ongoing celebrations for the World's oldest club in November 2007.

Pele pictured in 1963

During his visit to Sheffield, Pele made a special appearance on BBC Radio Sheffield's Football Heaven programme. You can listen to the interview via the links on the bottom of this page.

Living legend

Edson Arantes do Nascimento [Pele is his nickname] is regarded as the greatest footballers of all time by many. But when was first called Pele as a boy he wasn't too fond of the name:

"When I was young, about nine years I used to play in the street, or a bad field like we have in Brazil," Pele told the BBC.

"Some boy called me Pele... then I had a fight with them and said 'no my name is Edson why do you call me Pele?'

"Everybody started to say 'Pele, Pele'. I went to school and somebody behind me in class said Pelé', I looked behind and I fight with them [laughs].

Pele pictured as a Cosmos player in the '70s

"Nobody knows exactly what it means, Pele."

The 67-year-old played for Brazil in their World Cup victories of 1958, 1962 and 1970 and scored 1,280 goals [including frendlies and Brazilian national service teams] and played in 1,363 professional games.

Pele began his professional career at Brazilian club side Santos aged just 15, played for the national team aged 16, and within a year was lighting up the World Cup.

Despite the obvious interest from European clubs Pele saw out his career at Santos, but did spend nearly three years at New York Cosmos in the twilight of his career.

Pele on Football Heaven

As a global star Pele also appeared in a number of films, including the John Huston's 1981 prisoner of war film Escape To Victory. Listen to the interview where the great talks about the film, the worlds best teams and players, his friendship with John Lennon and lots more. Select the links below.