Sandra Regina Arantes do Nascimento, who won a long legal battle to have the former soccer ace recognised as her father, died on Tuesday at the age of 42.
As Pele readies to awaken the 'sleeping giant of football' with his presence, Rediff.com lists some lesser known facts from the legend's life. Read on and be amazed...
Brazil's failure to claim an Olympic soccer gold medal, the one major tournament they have never won, is all because Pele never played in the competition, the soccer great joked on Thursday.
Triple World Cup soccer winner Pele is putting some 2,000 items up for auction, including his three World Cup medals and a one of a kind Jules Rimet trophy that could fetch up to one million dollars, auctioneers said on Thursday.
Pele has urged world soccer's governing body (FIFA) to introduce a salary cap for players and warned that the vast sums of money changing hands in the game could taint its image for future generations.
At the opening ceremony in Sao Paulo, attended by President Dilma Rousseff and a clutch of visiting heads of state, Pele was a notable absentee despite living not far away in Santos.
Diego Maradona believes he was better than the great Brazilian Pele. The Argentine ace says it is not his solo claim, but that of the fans who voted him as the best football ever to have graced the game ahead of Pele!
The shirt worn by 17-year-old Pele when he scored two goals for Brazil in the 1958 World Cup final against Sweden is set to raise up to 100,000 pounds.
The football legend said people today want players to be stars rather than footballers.
Football legend Pele has termed Argentine forward Lionel Messi as the "best in last 10 years", but also spoke highly of his fellow Brazilian Neymar and Portugal's Ronaldo.
Pele was doing well without medical complications, and was lucid and eating well.
"I want to thank god for giving me the opportunity to travel this distance, for only the second trip of my life to India."
A Rest of the World XI will take on an Africa XI in Cape Town's Newlands Stadium on July 18.
South African pace legend Allan Donald feels cricket would be a poorer sport once Sachin Tendulkar retires from the scene as the Indian veteran is "Maradona and Pele put together" for the game.
Brazil are placing too much hope on the shoulders of Neymar and the 21-year-old becomes "an ordinary player" when represents his country, according to Pele.
His goal in his team's 2-2 draw with Tunisia came 12 years after his first goal in the World Cup finals against Morocco in 1994.
Ronaldinho's experience could have a calming effect on Brazil's youthful World Cup side if coach Dunga recalled the 30-year-old to the squad, Pele said on Tuesday. Three-times World Cup winner Pele said in an interview that he would pick Ronaldinho, who turned 30 on Sunday and has played at two finals, helping Brazil win their fifth title in 2002.
Sport 10, which has the worldwide commercial rights to Pele's image and intellectual property, has denied the Brazilian ace's association with the football match, to be played between Superstars XI and India Dream XI.
Brazilian football great Pele said he was in good health in a video recorded at the Sao Paulo hospital where he has been treated for a urinary tract infection.
A large hole in the roll of honour of Pele, arguably soccer's greatest player, was filled 33 years after he quit when he was officially recognised as a six time Brazilian champion at the age of 70 on Wednesday. The championship officially started in 1971 but the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) announced that the Brasil Cup and Roberto.
Brazilian football great Pele has called on thousands of protestors demonstrating over poor quality public services and corruption to leave the streets and focus on football, an appeal that was quickly met with derision on social media.
The cases made on both sides came with a host of subtexts: the Argentine versus the Brazilian, the man of the people versus the establishment figure, the party animal versus the quiet man, and the rebel versus the conformist.
Pele's son Edinho was found not guilty of manslaughter on Friday in a retrial over his alleged involvement in a car crash in Santos 13 years ago.
Soccer legend Pele said he regretted he had failed to see Edinho was using narcotics.
Sweden picked up their fourth Women's World Cup bronze medal on Saturday after beating co-hosts Australia 2-0.
Spanish teenager Yamal coy over 'dream come true' wonder strike
Images from the Euro 2024 semi-final between Spain and France, at Munich Football Arena, Germany, on Tuesday.
Brazilian soccer legend Pele has said he fears that violent protests in Brazil could ruin the upcoming 2014 World Cup.
Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo has the potential to become as great a player as Pele or Diego Maradona, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson said on Saturday. Ferguson's lavish praise comes during the latest war of words between United and Spanish giants Real Madrid over the future of the Ballon d'Or winner.
The enormous structured global advertising machinery that surrounds every football game on the planet today? Pele was perhaps single-handedly responsible for all of it. By just being brilliant, captivating crowds, and behaving like a being from the future, doing things that STILL provoke oohs and aahs from watchers. Vaibhav Raghunandan salutes the Incomparable Pele.
Inter Milan reached their fourth consecutive Italian Cup final after second-half goals from Pele and Julio Cruz sealed a 2-0 win at Lazio on Wednesday. The Serie A leaders will go in search of a second league and cup double in three years and a third cup triumph in four attempts after prevailing 2-0 on aggregate following last month's goalless first leg.
Pele, Bobby Charlton and former Brazil captain Cafu will join the FIFA task force which look at ways of brightening up the game and improve refereeing in time for the 2014 World Cup.
His Brazilian fans loved him for his idiosyncratic personality and unapologetic nationalism. He liked to say he was born with victory at his side and was rarely shy to challenge those who said his teams were too defensive.
FIFA Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo must continue to maintain his exceptional high standards in order to be classed among the sport's legends, according to Brazil great Pele who compared the Portuguese to Eusebio.
Rooney, 18, is Euro 2004's top scorer with four goals, leading his normally understated coach Sven-Goran Eriksson to draw comparisons with Brazil's maestro.
The football legend believes he still has something to offer the sport he dubbed 'The Beautiful Game'.
Nigeria produced the first major shock of the Women's World Cup as they stunned Australia 3-2.
Ronaldo's 130 goals for his country is also way out on its own at the head of most scored in international football
