Pelé

Tarcisio Burgnich, the famous Italian defender who marked Pelé in the 1970 World Cup Finals: "I told myself before the game, 'he's made of skin and bones just like everyone else' - but I was wrong". An Act of Congress in 1902 disbanded the Kaw, the tribe of his mother, as a legal entity and transferred 160 acres (0.6 km²) to the federal government and about 1,625 acres (6.6 km²) of Kaw land to Curtis and his children. Pelé has published several best-selling autobiographies, starred in documentary and semi-documentary films and composed various musical pieces, including the entire soundtrack for the film 'Pelé' in 1977. The Curtis Act in 1898—passed while he served in the House—expanded the powers of the federal government over American Indian affairs. Pelé was one of the first black people to be featured on the cover of Life Magazine. His remains were returned to Topeka, Kansas, where he is buried at Topeka Cemetary. After winning his second World Cup in 1962, wealthy European clubs offered massive fees to sign the young player, but the government of Brazil declared Pelé an official national treasure to prevent him from being transferred out of the country. He died in that city in 1936.

Pelé is the first sports figure featured on a video game with the Atari 2600 game Pelé's Soccer. In Washington, D.C., Curtis resumed the practice of law. In 1970, the two factions involved in a civil war in Nigeria agreed for a 48-hour ceasefire so they could watch Pelé play an exhibition game in Lagos. Curtis served until March 4, 1933, because Hoover was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1932. Pelé is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. The pair was inaugurated on March 4, 1929.
In the same year, Pelé received the Laureus World Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement Award from South African President Nelson Mandela. Curtis resigned from the Senate on March 3, 1929, having been elected Vice President on the Republican ticket headed by Herbert Hoover in 1928.

(For details of the controversial process, see Sports Illustrated Article). It was during his Senatorial years that he—in concert with fellow Kansan, Representative Daniel Read Anthony, Jr.—offered in their respective bodies during December of 1923 the first rendition of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution. In December 2000, Pelé was named Footballer of the Century by a "Family of Football" committee appointed by FIFA, after a web poll favored Diego Maradona. He was also United States Senate Republican Whip from 1915 to 1924 and Majority Leader from 1925 to 1929. He was voted athlete of the century by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1999. During his tenure in the Senate, he was President pro tempore of the Senate as well as Chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Interior, of the Committee on Indian Depredations, and of the Committee on Coast Defenses, as well as of the Republican Conference. In 1995, he was appointed an Ambassador for UNESCO at the Goodwill Games. In 1920, he was elected by Kansas voters (in compliance with the Constitution's recently-ratified 17th Amendment) and again in 1926 and served without interruption from March 4, 1915, until his resignation on March 3, 1929.

In 1992, Pelé was appointed a United Nations Ambassador for Ecology and the Environment. However, the Kansas Legislature again appointed him for the six-year term commencing March 4, 1915. In 1997, he was given an honorary British knighthood. He was an unsuccessful candidate for re-designation in 1912. He was awarded Brazil's Gold Medal for outstanding services to the sport, before becoming Sports Minister in 1994. On that same day of January 28, Curtis was simultaneously tapped by Kansas' state lawmakers to the full Senatorial term commencing March 4 of that year and ending March 3, 1913. In his 92 appearances for the Brazilian team, he scored 77 goals. Burton, who had likewise resigned.

He ended his career with a total of 1281 goals in 1363 matches, becoming the highest goalscorer in professional football ever. He was elected as a Republican to the House of Representatives of the 53rd Congress and to the six succeeding Congresses and served in the House from March 4, 1893 until January 28, 1907, when he resigned, having been chosen by the Kansas Legislature to serve in the United States Senate to fill the short unexpired term of Joseph R. Pelé is in third place in the list of all-time top goalscorers in World Cup play, with 12 goals, and he is the only player who won three World Cups with his team. He commenced practice in Topeka and served as prosecuting attorney of Shawnee County, Kansas from 1885 to 1889. Nascimento, 35, was arrested along with some 50 other people after an eight-month investigation into a cocaine trafficking operation in the port city of Santos. Curtis was born in Topeka, Kansas, attended Topeka High School and was admitted to the bar in 1881. In 2005, Pelé drew international media attention due to the imprisonment of Edson Cholbi Nascimento, his son, who was arrested in an operation to dismantle a drug gang in southeastern Brazil. He spent part of his early life on a Kaw reservation, and is the first person with acknowledged non-European ancestry to reach either of the two highest offices in the United States government.

Pelé is certainly one of the most famous men in football, with his nickname being recognized even by those unfamiliar with the sport. His mother was Kaw. Pelé is a long-standing contributor for children's rights at UNICEF and acts as the figurehead of a charity for erectile dysfunction. Curtis was of American Indian ancestry. In 1995, President Cardoso appointed Pelé to the position of Minister of Sports. Charles Curtis (January 25, 1860 – February 8, 1936) was a Representative and a Senator from Kansas as well as the 31st Vice President of the United States. He also played in a friendly match with the Lebanese club Nejmeh in 1974 (see Football in Lebanon).

The exhibition game was sold out six weeks beforehand. He played his last game as a professional on October 1, 1977 in front of a capacity crowd at Giants Stadium against his old club, Santos; he played the first half with the Cosmos and the second half with Santos. After his retirement from Brazilian football on October 3, 1974, he joined the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League. His unrivalled talent in by far the world's most popular sport has led many to consider him to have been the finest sportsman in the history of the world.

His immense haul of over twelve hundred career goals in all competitions has not even come close to being matched by any other man in the history of the professional game. Pelé's sublime technique and deft touch combined with his phenomenal dribbling skills and incredible scoring ability cannot be overstated. Brazil defeated Italy 4-1 in the final, with Pelé scoring one and gloriously setting up Jairzinho for another in what some still consider to be the finest ever world cup. The 1970 team, featuring famous players like Rivelino, Jairzinho, and Tostão, is often considered to be the greatest team ever.

Although his contributions were limited in the 1962 and 1966 campaigns because of injuries inflicted by the dirty play of opposition players, the 1970 tournament in Mexico was to be Pelé's last. He played in three more Brazilian world cup teams in 1962, 1966 and 1970, two of which Brazil won (1962 and 1970). In 1958, Pelé became the youngest ever World Cup winner in Sweden at 17, scoring two goals in the final as Brazil crushed Sweden 5-2 in Stockholm. Just ten months after signing professionally, the teenager was called up to the Brazilian national team.

When the new season started, Pelé was given a starting place in the first team and, at the age of just sixteen, became the top scorer in the league. Pelé was offered professional terms and scored four goals in his first league game. De Brito told the directors at Santos that the fifteen year old would be "the greatest football player in the world". In 1956, Pele's mentor took him to the city of São Paulo, to try out for professional club Santos.

At the age of eleven, Pelé was scouted by Brazilian legend Waldemar de Brito and was invited to join de Brito's amateur team, Clube Atlético Bauru. He was given his first leather ball on his sixth birthday by his father's teammate, Sosa. Growing up in poverty on the streets of Bauru, he could not afford a football and usually played with either a sock stuffed with papers or a grapefruit. Later in life, when reflecting that the world came to know the name, he stated his belief that it was chosen for him by God.

He originally disliked the nickname, but the more he complained the more he was called by it. He was named after American inventor Thomas Edison, and did not receive the nickname "Pelé" until his school days. Edson was born in Três Corações, Minas Gerais, Brazil, the son of Fluminense footballer João Ramos do Nascimento, also known as Dondinho. .

Since his full retirement in 1977 he has served as an ambassador for the sport. Over the course of his career, Pelé scored over a thousand goals and won three world cups. Technically outstanding, he also became famed for his lightning speed and his strength on the ball. He was often considered to be the complete footballer, as he was completely two-footed, a prolific finisher, exceptional at dribbling and passing, and was a remarkably good tackler for a forward.

Edson Arantes do Nascimento, KBE (born October 23, 1940), nicknamed Pelé, a Brazilian, is a former football player and thought by many to be the finest player of all time.