Part 2: Pele growing up

Part 2: Pele Growing Up

Summary: Pele played soccer all through his childhood and when he was fifteen, a representative from Rio de Janeiro came to Bauru to ask Pele to play for their club. Pele and his father moved to Santos where he started playing for the Santos club. He was very homesick while staying there and considered going home many times. Pele did very well on the junior team and began playing at the professional level. Not long after Pele was chosen to play for the Brazilian national team when he was 16. At the age of 17 Pele was playing on the Brazilian World Cup Team. He scored a hat-trick in the semi-final game and two goals in the World Cup Championship game. Pele was a National icon after helping the Brazilian team win the World Cup. From that day on, Pele's life changed in a way that he could never have imagined it would.


Pele Celebrates scoring in the World Cup

Review: The more that I read this book, the more and more it has inspired me to understand the incredible journey one man took from being a poor teenager with a talent, into the worlds best soccer player in the world. It is incredible to discover that a 17 year old played in the World Cup and was one of the biggest contributions to the Brazilian team. Despite how young Pele was, he outplayed and outsmarted many English and French full grown men who had been playing soccer at a professional level for many years. This biography of Pele is one of the most inspiring and motivating books about soccer that has been written. Learning about Pele's childhood and how he turned his life around from having no money, to having so much that he didn't know what to do with all of his income in unbelievable. It is impossible to stop reading this book once you start.

 Pele holds his World Cup trophy: 1962

Focus:
The focus for this week is on the Author. These are some things about the way the author writes the book and how he feels about the book.

The author James seems very enthusiastic when talking about Pele's life. James wrote the book because he is in love with the way Pele grew up and turned into a world icon. The way he writes makes the tone of the book exciting for the reader. Creates an inspiring mood that the reader can relate to: "He was only 17 and had scored a hat-trick in the World Cup Semifinals!" James does a marvelous job at drawing the readers attention to significant parts of Pele's life.

Sources: This is a link to a website about Pele's debut in professional soccer. Another link that is helpful to learn about the records and achievements that Pele set is his making of history.