2 September 7 Team

CHAPTER 2 September 7 Team Pelé and his friends watched the Bauru professional team and read stories of their soccer heroes around Brazil. When he was ten, Pelé and his friends formed a team of their own. They named it September 7, after the day Brazil gained independence from Portugal in 1822. It was also the name of a nearby street. But team September 7 wanted to do more than just play in the streets. The first thing they needed was a real soccer ball. Pelé had the idea to collect stickers that pictured famous Brazilian soccer players. The stickers were sold with candy and other products. If they saved enough stickers, they

could earn a ball. Finding all the stickers was hard work, but finally the boys had all the stickers they needed. The team got their new soccer ball! Since collecting stickers was Pelé's idea, the ball stayed at his house and he became the team's unofficial captain. Being the "keeper of the ball" did have some downsides. Whenever the team broke a window while they were playing, the neighbors went to Pelé's house to complain. And sometimes the

boys would hit a light pole and knock out the electricity for a short while... and then everyone pointed at Pelé! But stickers couldn't get them everything they wanted. The team also needed money for shirts and matching socks. And they still did not have soccer cleats. So they decided to change their team name to the Shoeless Ones. One summer, the town held a youth soccer tournament. Pelé and his teammates wanted to enter, but the rules said that all players had to have soccer shoes. So the father of three of the

players bought all the boys new cleats. Shoeless no more, they had to change their name once again and became Amériquinha (say: ah-MAREuh- KEEN-ya), which means "Little America" in English. Though many of the other teams in the tournament had older players, Amériquinha won game after game. They reached the final match, which was played at the same stadium in Bauru where Dondinho played. A large crowd chanted Pelé's name as he scored a big goal, and Amériquinha went home with the championship.

After the game, Pelé was thrilled when his father said, "You played a beautiful game. I couldn't have played any better myself!" Pelé's success in this tournament led the Bauru junior team to invite him to play with them. Dondinho was thrilled. But Celeste was not! Pelé's mother wanted him to focus on school and not follow the difficult life of a soccer player. But Pelé knew this was a big step toward his dream, so when he was just thirteen, he became a pro player, receiving a small payment for each game.

On the junior team, known as Baquinho (say: bah-KEEN-oh), he worked with a great coach named Waldemar de Brito. De Brito had played for Brazil's national team in the 1930s and 1940s. It was a great honor for this squad of young teenagers to have such a famous coach. "Baquinho was a strong team," Pelé later wrote, "and under Waldemar we became even stronger. We were invincible." He meant that his team could not be stopped. Led by Pelé's goal-scoring skill, Baquinho won a youth championship for the state of S.o Paulo in early 1955. In one game, he scored seven goals! Before the game, the stadium doorman almost didn't let him inside. He thought the pint-size Pelé was just a kid trying to sneak in without a ticket!