Book Review 2-18: PELE

I read PELE. This book is written about a famous soccer player's background. He plays soccer well. Then, he joins some soccer clubs. One day, he is selected for the member of Brazilian World Cup. Can his team win the games?

Edson Arantes do Nascimento was born in 1940. His family called him Dico. They lived in Brazil. In 1944, the manager of Bauru Altetico, a big soccer club, asked him to join the club. Then, the family accepted his offer and moved to Bauru. Little Dico played a lot of soccer at the club. Since the family didn't have enough money, he worked at Bauru station in 1948, and he cleaned shoes. Later that year, Dico started school. In 1951, his friends began to call him Pele. Pele played soccer well. In 1955, he joined Santos, a famous soccer club in Brazil. After some weeks, he had a good friend, Zito, on his team. Pele scored his first goal in a game in 1956. After that, he got to score many goals for the team in many games. Amazingly, late in 1957, he was selected for the member of the Brazilian World Cup! Then, Brazil was the champion in 1958, 1962 and 1970. After the 1970 World Cup, Pele said goodbye to World Cup soccer. By the way, in 1958, one day, he saw a young white girl, Rosemeri, at the ball game. She looked at him many times and he looked at her. Then, they got friends. After that, Pele had gone out with her for 7 years, and they married in 1965. In the end, he stopped playing soccer in 1974. He went to New York for a job with an American team, New York Cosmos. He stayed with the team for 3 years. After that, he worked for UNICEF and talked with governments about the problems of the world's children.

I knew about soccer just a little, but I didn't know Pele until I read PELE. I think he had a talent for soccer. He couldn't have won the World Cup when he was a rookie as a professional otherwise. Then, he was a great person because he played not only soccer for his team, but he also worked for UNICEF. Pele seemed to be diligent, kind and thoughtful. [383 words]