Childhood in Três Corações and Bauru

Edson Arantes do Nascimento was born on 23 October 1940 in Três Corações, a town in the south of Minas Gerais. His father, João Ramos do Nascimento, known as Dondinho, was a centre forward. His mother, Celeste Arantes, was from the same town. His parents named him after the American inventor Thomas Edison, dropping the "i". His birth certificate spelled it "Edison", and gave his birth date as 21 October, which he said was a mistake.

His family called him Dico. The name "Pelé" came later, at school, and nobody is quite sure why. Pelé said he probably got it after mispronouncing the name of Bilé, a goalkeeper he admired at Vasco da Gama. In his autobiography he said that neither he nor his school friends knew what the word meant.

Dondinho's career was held back by a serious knee injury. The family settled in Bauru, in the interior of São Paulo state, where they lived in poverty. As a boy Pelé worked as a server in tea shops to bring in money. He could not afford a proper ball, so he played with a sock stuffed with newspaper, or with a grapefruit. Dondinho taught him to play. His mother, who knew how hard a footballer's life could be, did not want him to make a career of it.

He played for small local teams with names such as Sete de Setembro and Ameriquinha. He also played futsal, the indoor five-a-side game, which was new in Bauru. He later said it taught him to think quickly in tight spaces, and it let him play against adults when he was about 14.

His most important team was the junior side of Bauru Atlético Clube. Its coach was Waldemar de Brito, a former Brazil forward. Under him, the juniors won two São Paulo state youth titles. In 1956 de Brito decided that the 15-year-old was ready for something bigger, and took him to the coast, to Santos.