Pelé Was 17 Years Old When He Won the World Cup — and Wept on the Pitch

In 1958, a 17-year-old boy became a World Champion — and collapsed on the pitch, sobbing like a child.

Edson Arantes do Nascimento grew up so poor in Brazil that he kicked a stuffed sock around the streets of Bauru because his family couldn't afford a real ball. By 15, he was playing professional football. By 17, Brazil sent him to the 1958 World Cup in Sweden — the youngest player in the tournament.

The world had no idea who he was. Then, in the quarterfinals against Wales, he scored the only goal of the match — the first World Cup goal of his career. Against France in the semi-finals, he scored a hat-trick. He was still a teenager. Tournament veterans had never seen anything like it. Swedish newspapers called him 'the Black Panther.' The whole world was starting to pay attention.

In the final against Sweden, on Swedish soil, in front of a home crowd of 49,000 — Brazil won 5 to 2. Pelé scored twice, including a goal so audacious — a chest trap, a flick over a defender's head, and a volley into the net — that the Swedish crowd gave him a standing ovation. The opposing fans cheered for the boy who had just beaten them. And then it hit him. He fell to his knees and wept.

His teammate Didí lifted him up. Pelé said later he didn't know what came over him — he had dreamed of this moment since he was a barefoot child. He had just lived it at 17 years old. He would go on to win two more World Cups. But he never forgot the boy who wept in Stockholm.

Follow The History Vault for the stories they didn't teach you.