Pel

PEL or Pel may refer to:

Pelé

Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Brazilian Portuguese: [ˈɛtsõ (w)ɐˈɾɐ̃tʃiz du nɐsiˈmẽtu]; born 23 October 1940), known as Pelé (Brazilian Portuguese: [pe̞ˈlɛ]), is a retired Brazilian professional footballer who played as a forward. He is widely regarded as the greatest player of all time. In 1999, he was voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS). The same year, France Football asked their former Ballon d'Or winners to choose the Football Player of the Century; they selected Pelé. In 1999, Pelé was elected Athlete of the Century by the IOC, and Time named him in their list of 100 most influential people of the 20th century. In 2013 he received the FIFA Ballon d'Or Prix d'Honneur in recognition of his career and achievements as a global icon of football.

According to the IFFHS, Pelé is the most successful league goal scorer in the world, with 541 league goals. In total Pelé scored 1281 goals in 1363 games, including unofficial friendlies and tour games, for which he was listed in the Guinness World Records for most career goals scored in football. During his playing days, Pelé was for a period the best-paid athlete in the world. In his native Brazil, he is hailed as a national hero for his accomplishments in football and for his vocal support of policies to improve the social conditions of the poor. In 1961, Brazil President Jânio Quadros had Pelé declared a national treasure. During his career, he became known as "The Black Pearl" (A Pérola Negra), "The King of Football" (O Rei do Futebol), "The King Pelé" (O Rei Pelé) or simply "The King" (O Rei).

Pelé: Birth of a Legend

Pelé: Birth of a Legend is an upcoming American biographical film about the Brazilian footballer Pelé. The film is directed and written by Jeff Zimbalist and Michael Zimbalist. The film stars Kevin de Paula, Vincent D'Onofrio, Rodrigo Santoro, Diego Boneta and Colm Meaney.

Cast

Production

The principal photography of the film begun in Rio de Janeiro on September 30, 2013. On February 9, 2014, it was announced that the film will not release at the time of 2014 FIFA World Cup, because it was in post-production and doing some re-shoots.

The film was shot entirely on location in Brazil, with Leonardo Carvalho and Kevin de Paula playing the rising star at the age of 9 and 17, respectively. Pele stated: "The two young actors who play my younger self will be true stars, as their skills both on screen and on the football pitch proved." The Zimbalist stated that they wanted to concentrate on Pele’s early life for dramatic reasons, the gave the reason as: "It was the birth of the legend that parallels the birth of the Brazilian national identity, coming off the 1950 (World Cup) loss (to Uruguay) in Maracana stadium". The film is centered on the relationship between the Pele and his father.