Power Ranking: Top 10 greatest players to play soccer in the US
By Kris Whelan
No.1- Pele
There are no prizes for guessing who the greatest ever player to play soccer in the US. If you ask everyone in the world with any soccer knowledge who the best of the best is, the majority would go with Brazilian legend Pele. Through his club and international career he played 1,366 games, scoring 1,282 goals. Just let that sink in. He is the only player to ever win three FIFA World Cups as a player and is still Brazil’s all time goalscorer with 77 goals in 92 games. He played professionally for 21 years, contributing to the Brazil National team for 14 of those.
Pele was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento on the 23rd of October 1940. He began playing soccer at an early age and made his professional debut in 1956 for Brazilian side Santos at the age of 16, scoring on his debut. Overall the Brazilian forward played 638 league games for Santos, scoring an unimaginable 619 league goals. He holds a record in the Guinness Book of World Records for most league goals of all time. The league system in Brazil at the time was more complicated than it is now, with three different league titles with different levels of importance on offer each year. Overall Pele won 20 league titles over 18 years at Santos. He is still the leading scorer for the club and is remembered as a national hero.
He made his international debut at the age of 16 years and nine months, scoring in a 2-1 loss to Argentina. It made him the youngest ever player to score in a senior international match. He won the World Cup in 1958, becoming the youngest player to play in the competition, score in the competition and score a hat trick in the competition. Pele scored in the quarter final, the semi final and the final making him a world wide celebrity at the age of 17. He would go on to win the World Cup on two more occasions in 1962 and 1970.
Pele decided to end his career in Brazil in 1975 by moving to the New York Cosmos. He might have been 35 when he made the move, but he still had so much to offer the North American Soccer League. He scored 31 goals in 56 appearances for the Cosmos. He helped them to win the North American Soccer League in 1977 before retiring.
As long as soccer continues, the name of Pele will live on as the best ever and there is little argument to dispute his greatness.
"“Pele was the only footballer who surpassed the boundaries of logic.” – Johan Cruyff “I sometimes feel as though football was invented for this magical player.” – Sir Bobby Charlton “I arrived hoping to stop a great man, but I went away convinced I had been undone by someone who was not born on the same planet as the rest of us.” – Benfica goalkeeper Costa Pereira"
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