3 Young Star

CHAPTER 3 Young Star Waldemar de Brito continued to teach Pelé and other young players about the game they loved. But in early 1955, de Brito got an offer to move to the city of Santos in the state of S.o Paulo to work for another club. De Brito sat down with Dondinho and Celeste and told them that he thought Pelé should play for his new club, called Santos Futebol Clube (or Santos FC). Celeste was still worried about her "baby." Dondinho trusted de Brito, however, S.o Paulo was not as big or as far away as Rio de Janeiro. It was only around two hundred miles from Bauru. Pelé, of course, was thrilled. Together, the family decided that the teenage star should take the next step in his career.

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For the train ride to S.o Paulo, Celeste made Pelé his first pair of long pants. Dondinho traveled to S.o Paulo with Pelé. Waldemar de Brito met them at the train station. Together, the trio headed to the Santos stadium, called Vila Belmiro. On the way, Pelé saw the tall skyscrapers of the city and marveled at the crowds of people. Once, a teacher had told Pelé that the ocean was salty. Now he had a chance to

see for himself. He asked to stop at a S.o Paulo beach so he could taste the ocean to make sure. "You can't imagine how grand it all was for me," he wrote later. At the stadium, Pelé watched the team in action and then met the players—all older than he was. Many knew Dondinho from his long years as a player. One of them was Vasconselos, the team's star. "Put your mind at rest. He'll be safe with us," he told his old friend. Dondinho returned to Celeste knowing that his son was in good hands.

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Pelé was very nervous. He was given a small room in a dormitory for single players. It was the first time Pelé had lived apart from his family, and he was sad. He was also worried about whether he could play with the older, bigger players on the Santos team. He couldn't even call his mother, since the family did not have a telephone back in Bauru. "I was only fifteen, and suddenly I had to live with strange people in a strange place," he wrote later. "I was afraid of failing, but even more, I was afraid of the dark!" After missing a penalty shot during a game, Pelé tried to sneak back home to Bauru. He was homesick. He had lost his confidence. He was also afraid he would never grow big enough to play with the larger players. As he tried to sneak out of the stadium unnoticed, the team assistant, Big Sabu, stopped him and convinced Pelé to give it one more shot. Sabu did not want Pelé to give up so easily. He told the teenager, "If you try running away again, I'll take that suitcase away from you!"