Installment No.3

Soccerߣs Role in Brazil, Peleߣs Time is nearߪ
Historical Event: Professional Football in Brazil 1933

Professional football has had far reaching effects in Brazilian culture and life. Given Brazilߣs significant number of unskilled, illiterate, and marginalised people, the introduction of professional football in 1933, has enabled numerous people the opportunity to play a part in their community, as volunteers, board members, supporters, a number of support jobs, a collective identity, and ultimately for a portion of these, a career playing Soccer all over Brazil. In the case of Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Pele), the possibility to play in many countries, representing his club, his country, and his people.

Peleߣs story of success and achievement is the exception for professional footballers, however this should not discount the many advantages Professional Football has brought to the poor and disadvantaged living in the same conditions Pele grew up in, and the communities who find identity, joy, and delight beyond their immediate circumstance. É?The central position of the soccer club in Brazilian communities sustains pluralism by giving people of similar backgrounds a place to meet. Soccer clubs can offer the only form of organised activity in poor areas. The soccer club was often a communities first voluntary organisation, and even today soccer clubs offer millions of people, their only experience with grass roots democracyÉ? (Arbena, 1988, p.90)

Joao do Nascimento, Peleߣs father, was known as an excellent footballer and his skills were in demand by the smaller teams in the State of Mines Gerais. This meant the family moved around during Peleߣs childhood, which gave him impressionable experiences such as a train ride, and seeing parts of the country he had never even heard of. The most significant influence to benefit the family was the promise of a public service job to supplement his income. Pele comments (1977) that his mother who had É?threatened to start a small warÉ? over another shift, surrendered instantly on hearing the promise of a state job. Contacts Joao made during his career helped Pele later on as he progressed as a player. A significant result, which would have been noted by Pele growing up in a poor community was the respect afforded to his dad and the esteem with which others held him. É?Jorge [Peleߣs uncle] loved my father and Jorge secretly envied my fathers ability to play football and have people cheer him from the stands, and have people cross the street to come over and say hello when he walked through the town.É? (Pele, 1977).

While observing and cherishing his fatherߣs involvement as a professional player, it also inspired Pele in his vocational choice and gave him a focus as a boy beyond his environment. Pele tells how he lived for football playing in the Bauru youth team, É?dreaming of the day when I would get to play with BAC (Bauru Athletic Club) as a professionalÉ?(Pele, 1977).