Cristiano Ronaldo the biography by Guillem Balague

Book recommendation “Pelé” by Leor 

The book Pelé follows the famous soccer player Edson Arantes do Nascimento aka Pelé, in his journey to become an iconic soccer player, and his life after retirement from soccer. The book starts off with Pelé growing up and explaining his lifestyle when he was little from his first memories of playing soccer with his dad, to him playing street soccer with his friends, and the other children in his neighborhood. Pelé grew up with the influence of soccer in his life from his dad being a prospect professional player leading to a career ending injury, to the whole country being united by the world cup. Everyone would talk about soccer. The area where Pelé grew up in, was very poor, and often Pelé would wonder about how he would get his next meal. The house he grew up in was in a rough state, the roof sometimes leaking water when it rained. At the age of 15 Pelé received an offer to play and played for the club Santos F.C, and by the age of 16 Pelé received an offer to play for the Brazilian national team. 2 years after signing to the Brazilian national team Pelé won the world cup, and then he won it again after the 4-year gap in between world cups. Pelé won 1 more world cup after the previous back to backs when he was at the age of 30. A lot of rich European clubs offered Pelé contracts to join their club, and before he could even join the Brazilian government declared him as a national treasure and would not let him leave to go play for the European clubs. Once Pelé retired, he became a worldwide ambassador for soccer and in 1999 was labeled as athlete of the century by the international Olympic committee, he was also a part of the Time’s list of the 100 most important people of the 20^th century.

 

My thoughts on the book:

I thought this was a very well written autobiography, about Pelé and his journey throughout his life so far. I liked the message in Pelé’s life, about how if you have a passion about something that you should pursue it. I think the autobiography about Pelé is very good because the author described his life so far, in a way that was easy to follow and understand. I think that the author chose a great person to do an autobiography on, and I think that he explained his whole career in a way that could inspire future generations when reading the book. If you like soccer or want a good autobiography to read I would recommend this book.