DICO@79

Happy Birthday to former Santos and New York Cosmos striker Edson Arantes do Nascimento, commonly known as "Pelé" who turns 79 today. Pele spent 18 years of his career with Santos where he became the club's all-time leading goalscorer(1091 goals; official and unofficial matches) and top appearance record holder(1106 appearances; official and unofficial matches). Officially, he scored 656  goals in 643 games for Santos. He is Brazil national team all time record goalscorer with 77 goals in 92 caps. He won three FIFA World Cups: 1958, 1962 and 1970, being the only player ever to do so. Notably, Pele is the youngest player to play in a FIFA World Cup final(17 years and 249 days, for Brazil vs Sweden 1958), the youngest goalscorer in FIFA World Cup(17 years and 249 days (Brazil vs Sweden 1958) and the youngest player to score a hat-trick in a FIFA World Cup(17 years and 244 days (Brazil vs France 1958). During his playing days, Pelé was for a period the best-paid athlete in the world. Pele signed a three-year $2.8 million contract with New York Cosmos in 1975, making him the highest paid athlete in the world. He was 34-years-old and had not played soccer competitively for eight months when he joined the team. He holds a record for the most hat-tricks in football history(92). Since retiring in 1977, Pelé has been a worldwide ambassador for football and has made many acting and commercial ventures. In 2010, he was named the Honorary President of the New York Cosmos.