Legendary footballer , Pelé’s name added to dictionary

The nickname of late Brazilian football legend Edson Arantes do Nascimento, ‘Pele’ has been added to the Portuguese dictionary as synonym for ‘incomparable’, and ‘unique’ following a campaign by the footballer’s foundation.

Pelé Foundation began the campaign for the iconic nickname to be added to the dictionary following his death from colon cancer complications last year. The movement garnered more than 125,000 signatures, prompting Portuguese-language Michaelis dictionary, to add the name to its entries.

The Santos legend was 82 when he died.

Announcing the new development, the publishers of Michaelis dictionaries said the word ‘Pelé’ would be immediately included in its digital edition of their Portuguese-language dictionary while the change would be made in the printed edition ahead of the next publishing version.

The entry reads: “pe.lé adj. That or someone who is out of the ordinary, who or who by virtue of their quality, value or superiority cannot be equalled to anything or anyone, just like Pelé, nickname of Edson Arantes do Nascimento (1940-2022), who is considered the greatest athlete of all time; exceptional, incomparable, unique.”

Pelé is widely regarded as the greatest footballer in the history of the round leather game with a standing record as the only player to win three FIFA World Cup titles and a record of 1,281 goals scored in a career that spanned across two decades for Brazil’s national team, Santos and the New York Cosmos.

Meanwhile, the number of career goals in Pelé’s name is often debated by various sources with many citing a significant number of those goals were scored during multiple unofficial matches – the Rec Sport Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) determined Pelé scored 767 goals in 831 games based on competitive matches only.