Brazilian greatest Footballer Pele

Pelé is the first soccer player to achieve massive international acclaim. His name is regularly mentioned today, more than a quarter century after his retirement.
Apart from his popularity, Pelé's life story is the ultimate soccer dream. He began as a poor boy from the slums in Tres Coracoes, Brazil but earned fame and fortune through his talent on the pitch. Pelé's father, Dondinho, was very influential in his son's success. Dondinho was a former footballer and made sure to pass over his knowlege to young Pelé. This paid off and by the age of 15, Pelé was signed by Santos. His international debut followed just a year after on the 7th of July 1957 against Argentina at the legendary Maracanã stadium. Merely at the age of 17, Pelé was recruited to Brazil's World Cup squad. At World Cup 1958 in Sweden, he first gained attention after his goal against Wales which clinched Brazil to the next round. Pelé proved that he wasn't a fluke in the following match, scoring three goals on France. By the tournament's final, Brazilian coach Vicente Feola was confident in the talented 17-year old. His two goals at the 1958 World Cup final ascertained his status as a soccer superstar.
Thanks to Pelé's sensational scoring, his club Santos earned the Intercontinental Cup in 1962 and 1963.

At the 1962 World Cup in Chile, Pelé missed out most of the tournament due to an injury. Brazil still managed to win the trophy. At World Cup 1966, Pele was once again was forced to permanently leave the pitch after being ferociously tackled.
After England 1966, many began to doubt the Brazilian soccer player and his superstar status. He made a triumphant return at Mexico 1970 by dazzling audiences worldwide. This was the first World Cup broadcast in color and was shown across an unprecedented number of countries. In front of over 100,000 spectators at Azteca Stadium and millions of TV viewers, Pelé scored the first goal of the 1970 World Cup final. That opened the floodgates to Brazil's crushing 4-1 victory and reclaimed Pele as the "King of Soccer".
Later in the 1970's, Pelé was signed by the New York Cosmos in the North American Soccer League. He eventually retired as the only player with over 1000 goals in professional football. Pele was the first commercial superstar of non-commercial soccer.

Real striker Higuain out three weeks with leg muscle injury

MADRID, Spain — Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain will miss three weeks because of a leg muscle injury.

The Spanish club says medical tests Tuesday confirmed a tear in Higuain's left calf muscle.

The Argentina striker has been a regular despite the arrivals of Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Karim Benzema and leads the team with 11 goals in the league along with two in the Champions League. Higuain was also a starter in Argentina's final World Cup qualifying games.

With Higuain ruled out against Athletic Bilbao, Malaga and Deportivo La Coruna, Benzema is likely to take his place. Madrid is also without midfielder Rafael Van der Vaart for up to three weeks with a leg injury.

Madrid trails Spanish leader Barcelona by two points in the standings.

Barcelona players Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique both congratulated Sevilla

Barcelona players Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique have expressed their disappointment at their exit from the Copa del Rey after losing out to Sevilla on away goals but both congratulated the Andalusian outfit.

Barcelona managed to win the second leg thanks to a solidtary Xavi goal but the one goal victory wasn't enough as Los Nervionenses progressed to the quarter finals.

"The truth is that it hurts go out of it this the way In the second half we did many enough to go through. We are hurt because we did not expect to go out but we must move on. We congratulate Sevilla because they made it happen and wish them good luck from now on in this competition," Messi said afterwards, according to AS.

"We're fine but it hurts to lose. I congratulate Sevilla, they did a great job. When you lose you are always concerned especially if you're not used to losing. We're in good shape but cannot always win everything. People have to feel proud of the team. At Barca we are always obliged to win," Pique noted.

Barcelona won't have long to wait to exact revenge on the Andalusian side as they face Sevilla in the Primera Liga this weekend at Camp Nou.