Tournament · 1962 · champions
Copa Libertadores 1962
Santos's first South American club title, won against Peñarol with two Pelé goals in the deciding match.
Santos qualified for the third Copa Libertadores by winning the 1961 Taça Brasil. They won their first-round group and beat Universidad Católica in the semi-finals.
The final against the holders, Peñarol of Uruguay, went to three matches. Santos won 2–1 in Montevideo and lost 3–2 in Santos, so a play-off was held at the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires on 30 August 1962. Santos won 3–0, and Pelé scored twice.
He scored four goals in the competition. It was the first time a Brazilian club had won the Libertadores.
Only 51 minutes of the second leg were counted as official by CONMEBOL; Santos scored again in the unofficial time that followed, but the result stood as a 3–2 defeat. The play-off was refereed by the Dutchman Leo Horn.
Winning the Libertadores took Santos into the Intercontinental Cup against Benfica that autumn, and that same year they also won the Campeonato Paulista and the Taça Brasil.
In the group stage Santos won every match but one, a 1–1 draw away to Cerro Porteño. In the home game against Cerro at Vila Belmiro they won 9–1, with two goals from Pelé and three from Coutinho. Peñarol's Alberto Spencer scored three of their four goals in the final.