Top 100 momentsNo. 31
A skinny kid from Bauru wins the World Cup in Sweden. Brazil’s No. 10 becomes the first global soccer superstar of the television age.
Edson Arantes do Nascimento is 17 in Sweden. He scores in the quarterfinal, a hat-trick in the semi, two more in the final. Brazil beat the hosts 5-2. A nation that had lost the 1950 final at home gets the trophy and a face to put on it.
Pelé is not the first great Brazilian. He is the first the rest of the world can see, in newsreels and then on television, smiling with a trophy that will follow him for decades. Santos become a touring circus. The No. 10 becomes a brand before sport has that word.
Every later prodigy is measured against a teenager in 1958. The World Cup had been a tournament. After Pelé it is also a coronation machine.