Three Unbroken Records Set By Brazilian Football Legend Pele

Brazilian football icon, Pele, died on Thursday after a tough battle with a colon tumor.

During his ‘hey days’ the global sports star set some amazing records that none of the new generation of football stars are close to breaking.

Pele began his football career with Santos at the age of 15 and was called up to the Brazil national team a year later.

Some of the records which he set in his 21-year career have since been broken, but many have not, and there are some which seem unlikely to ever be broken.

1. Youngest World Cup Winner

At the time when Pele was chosen by Brazil for the 1958 World Cup, he was just 17, making him the youngest player in the squad. He broke several records when he became the youngest player to play in a World Cup as he started Brazil’s third group game.

Since 1958, players who are younger than Pele have gone to the World Cup, but none of them have ever won the trophy or even advanced past the quarterfinals. Pele made his debut for Brazil against Sweden in the 1958 World Cup final when he was just 17 years and 249 days old.

Pele is the youngest player to score in a World Cup final, as Brazil won by 5-2. He returned from the tournament as the highest goal scorer.

2. Most Hat-Tricks

During his career years, Pele scored a remarkable 92-hat tricks, a record no footballer is close to breaking.

His 92 hat-tricks equate to 276 goals, meaning Pele scored more goals in those 92 games than most strikers score over the course of their entire careers. 

Among his hat-tricks, some of the highlights are the hat-trick he scored against France at the 1958 World Cup, the hat-trick he scored against Argentina in the 1963 Roca Cup, and the hat-trick he scored against Eusebio’s Benfica in the 1962 Intercontinental Cup second leg.

At club level he scored hat-tricks against the likes of Inter Milan, Eintracht Frankfurt, and Chile.

While Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Portugal’s Christiano Ronaldo have 55 and 56 hatricks, they are unlikely to break the record as they are already in the last years of their football career.

3. Most World Cup Trophies

The World Cup is still regarded as the most prestigious and revered award in football. Every four years, the World Cup competition pits the finest players in the world against one another on the largest platform of them all. For every football player, winning the World Cup trophy is the ultimate goal. Few people achieve that dream, and for those who do, it almost certainly ranks as their greatest sports achievement.

Winning it twice is an incredibly unusual accomplishment and only 20 players in the history of the sport have won it twice. Pele is the only one to have won it three times. 

Pele won the World Cup in 1958, 1962 and 1970.

In both 1958 and 1970, Pele was arguably the player of the tournament. In 1962, Pele was injured in Brazil’s second group game and missed the rest of the tournament.

No current new generation player has 2 worlds Cup and it appears it will take a long while before the record is broken