Which teams did Pele play for? Know about the ‘Black Pearl’s’ career

Brazilian legend Pele is one of the most influential figures in the history of football, and one of the very few whose career is measured in eras rather than seasons. He died on 29 December 2022, aged 82, after a long illness that followed surgery for colon cancer.

For all the trophies, the answer to the question people still ask most often is a short one. Across two decades as a professional, Pele played club football for only two teams — Santos FC in Brazil and the New York Cosmos in the United States — plus the Brazil national side.

One may wonder why a player of Pele’s stature never turned out for a European heavyweight. The reason lies in his attachment to Brazil, where he joined Santos at 15 and became an icon over 18 years at the club.

The three-time World Cup winner once explained: “I had many offers to sign for Madrid, Barca, Milan and Bayern, but I was happy at Santos and that’s why I stayed for 18 years.

“When I left it was an experience to go to the Cosmos and promote football, do soccer clinics and learn English… if not I would never have left Brazil.”

Which teams did Pele play for?

The Santos and Cosmos figures above count competitive matches only. Pele’s headline career total is much larger, and that is where most of the confusion about his goalscoring comes from — see the section on his goal count below.

Santos FC

Pele represented several amateur teams during his youth, gaining much-needed experience in his formative days before Waldemar de Brito — who had scouted his talent in local tournaments — took him to Santos FC for a trial.

In June 1956 he signed a professional contract with the club after impressing the coaches. The 1957 campaign saw the teenager flourish: he finished as the Campeonato Paulista’s top scorer and earned his first Brazil call-up.

He went one better the following year. Pele scored 58 goals in the 1958 Campeonato Paulista, still the record for a single edition of the competition, and won his first major title with Santos in the same season.

Having starred in Brazil’s title-winning 1958 and 1962 World Cup campaigns, he attracted inevitable interest from Real Madrid, Manchester United and Juventus among others. He turned every one of them down.

In November 1969 Pele scored his 1,000th career goal, from the penalty spot against Vasco da Gama at the Maracana. Hundreds of spectators raced onto the pitch and the game was held up for a long stretch before it could restart.

He tormented opposition defences for close to two decades, with the low centre of gravity, close control and two-footedness that made him almost impossible to shepherd out of a dangerous position.

In all, he won 25 trophies with Santos — six Brazilian championships, 10 Campeonato Paulista titles, four Rio-Sao Paulo tournaments, two Copa Libertadores and two Intercontinental Cups among them — alongside a long list of individual honours.

New York Cosmos

In June 1975 Pele joined the New York Cosmos and became the face of football’s first serious push into the United States.

Having already retired from international duty, he scored on his debut in a 2-2 draw with Dallas Tornado.

He was well past his peak by then, but still managed 66 goals in 107 appearances for the Cosmos, and helped them win the North American Soccer League’s Soccer Bowl in 1977.

In October 1977 Pele played the final match of his career, an exhibition between the Cosmos and Santos at Giants Stadium in which he turned out for a half with each club. The Cosmos won 2-1, and his last goal was a long-range free-kick.

Brazil national team

Pele made his international debut in July 1957, a 2-1 defeat to Argentina. He scored in that match aged 16 years and nine months and remains Brazil’s youngest goalscorer.

The ‘Black Pearl’ then won the 1958, 1962 and 1970 World Cups — still the only player to have been part of three winning squads.

He finished with 77 goals in 92 appearances for Brazil. That stood as the men’s national record until September 2023, when Neymar went past it against Bolivia in World Cup qualifying; Pele is now second on the list. Brazil’s all-time record across both the men’s and women’s teams belongs to Marta, whose tally is well clear of both.

How many goals did Pele score in his career?

This is where the numbers stop agreeing with each other, and it is worth being precise about why.

The figure usually quoted — 1,281 goals in 1,363 matches — comes from FIFA, and Guinness World Records lists a near-identical 1,279. Both totals include a large number of friendlies and exhibition matches from Santos’ and the Cosmos’ overseas tours, which were a real and lucrative part of the job in that era but were not competitive fixtures.

Counting only official competition, the Rec Sport Soccer Statistics Foundation puts Pele on 767 goals in 831 games. Neither number is wrong; they answer different questions. He was also voted Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee in 1999.

If you want the wider context, we have broken down Brazil’s highest international goalscorers, where Pele ranks among the greatest footballers of all time, and the long-running argument over who the GOAT of football really is.

Photo credit: Alamy