The unique case of Pele’s debut!
To stimulate the curiosity of our readers we have formulated the question as follows: Has it ever happened in football that a player made his debut for the national team before his club team?
This is a practically impossible feat. In a certain sense, only the greatest, Pelé, managed it. In a certain sense, because on July 7, 1957, sixteen-year-old Edson Arantes do Nascimento belonged to the Santos reserves (he was the shadow man of the future AC Milan player Del Vecchio) and therefore had not yet made his debut in the championship.
Coach Lula had given him the starting spot on four occasions alone in the San Paolo Rio Tournament, which saw the top five teams from the Paulista and Carioca championships compete. Pelé began playing for Santos at age 15. Just one year later, It was therefore a surprise when, in view of the Copa “Roça” between Brazil and Argentina, the coach Silvio Pirillo also called up the “baby” Pelé.
Some thought it was a mistake. Instead, on July 7, 1957, in the second half, down 0-1, he sent him on the field in place of “Mazola”, aka José Altafini, a nineteen-year-old making his second appearance.
Brazil lost the match 2-1 but Pelé, needless to say, scored at 32`.
And it happened again three days later, when in the return match Brazil won 2-0, with a goal from the future “Black Pearl” and a second from Altafini himself, winning the Cup.
Photos above shows incredibly early Pelé Brazil match worn jersey dating to his 1957 debut season with Seleção.
It could be his earliest known Brazil National Team jersey! The white cotton shirt with an open blue collar and ribbed blue sleeve-ends has an early CBD (Confederação Brasileira de Desportos or Brazil Sports Confederation) crest embroidered on the left chest, with his famous number “10” on the back in blue.
The provenance of this shirt is very significant.
It was gifted by Pelé to fellow Brazilian superstar, Garrincha, who teamed with Pelé for the 1958 and 1962 World Cup titles. Many forget that Pelé got injured in the second game of the ’62 WC and missed the rest of the tournament in Chile. It was Garrincha who led Seleção to their ’62 FIFA crown. With the two legends on the pitch together, Brazil never lost a match.
© Copyright by
Pjerin Bj
New York: June 14, 2025
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Sports Vision + Plus / Champions Hour in activity since 2013
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