Pele

His first marriage was with Rosemeri dos Reis Cholbi in 1966. The couple was blessed with two daughters. They divorced in 1982.

From 1981 until 1986, he was romantically involved with Xuxa, whom, he aided to become a model. Xuxa was only 17-year-old when they started to date.

In 1994, he married psychologist and gospel singer Assíria Lemos Seixas. She gave birth to twins, Joshua and Celeste. The couple has separated.

Pele was born as Edson Arantes do Nascimento to Dondinho and Dona Celeste Arantes. He was the first child of the couple. He has a younger sibling. His father was a soccer player.

Originally nicknamed Dico, his friends started calling him Pele after his favourite football player Vasco da Gama ‘Bile’, whom he mispronounced as ‘Pele’.

Struck by poverty, he took up various odd jobs as a child to earn extra money. He received his early lessons in soccer from his father and played for various amateur teams in his youth.

Blessed with the talent for the game and a style of his own, he found himself a place at the Bauru Athletic Club juniors, which was coached by Waldemar de Brito. He led the team to three consecutive victories from 1954 to 1956. Additionally, he won several local indoor football competitions and championships.

Convinced of the phenomenal talent that he possessed, football star de Brito took Pele to Santos where he was included in the professional club, Santos FC. Pele signed a contract in June 1956 and played his first professional game in September. In the game, he scored his first professional goal against Corinthians Santo Andre.

Beginning 1957, he became a regular in the team and no sooner, the top scorer of the league. It was his remarkable performance that earned him a place in the national team of Brazil.

He played his first international game in July 1957 against Argentina. Though Brazil lost the match by 2-1, he scored his first international goal, thus becoming the youngest player ever to score in international football.

Year 1958 was a year of accomplishments. Not only did he help Santos register a win at the Campeonato Paulista—a top-flight professional football league in Brazil—with 58 goals, a feat unmatched till date, he was also part of the Brazilian team which won the World Cup.

Pele made significant contributions in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals of the 1958 World Cup and scored a total of six goals in four matches. He broke a number of records in the 1958 World Cup.

For his impressive line-up of victories and the extraordinary role in catapulting the status of the sport to newer heights, he received numerous prestigious honors and decorations including Brazil's Gold Medal, Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire and Lifetime Achievement Award from BBC.

The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) voted him as the Football Player of the Century in 1999. Additionally, he was elected as the ‘Athlete of the Century’ by the International Olympic Committee and Reuters News Agency

In 2010, he was appointed as the Honorary President of New York Cosmos. In 2012, he was awarded honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh for ‘significant contribution to humanitarian and environmental causes, as well as his sporting achievements’.