World Cup Moments: Pelé Becomes the Youngest Goalscorer in a World Cup Final

December 18th, 2009 | by: Daryl |

pele 1958

We all know Pelé was good. But it’s easy to forget just how good. If you have any doubts, take a look at Pele’s first goal for Brazil vs Sweden in the 1958 World Cup Final, below. The striker takes the ball on his chest, lifts it over the defender’s head with his right and then volleys home low with the same foot.

That goals made the score Brazil 3-1 Sweden. Now factor in the fact that Pelé was just 17 years old at the time, and you’ve got yourself something special. The great man added a second goal when he headed home in the 90th minute as Brazil went on to beat Sweden 5-2. All seven goals are below:

The first goal made Pelé the youngest goalscorer in a World Cup final at 17 years and 249 days. He still is. I’m not to keen to share what I was doing at 17, but it wasn’t that. Pelé also remains the youngest scorer in a World Cup tournament (vs Wales in the quarter-final, aged 17 years and 239 days) and the youngest scorer of a World Cup hat-trick (vs France in the semi-final, aged 17 years and 244 days).

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http://ivorycoast.worldcupblog.org Elliott

I think Pele is also the youngest player to pull of a “sombrero” in a World Cup final. And Sweden has never recovered from this defeat on home soil – Zlatan slumps his shoulder because he bears the weight of collective history.
CeCe

Number of games Brazil lost when Pele and Garrincha were on the field: 0
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

Great fact CeCe. Also, just read up on that (OK, I checked Wikipedia) and apparently Garrincha himself only ever lost one game while playing for Brazil, a 3-1 defeat to Hungary at the ‘66 World Cup and his last ever game.
CeCe

Yeah, that’s absolutely right Daryl. Garrincha was still recovering from knee surgery (and actually never made it back to being the player he was once was) and Pele was injured and sat out that game.
http://www.netmuzik.net muzik dinle

thanks so much. greetings from Turkey
http://www.maracanazo.com Maracanazo

I still remember Pele best for the goal that never was, the incredible move around the Uruguayan goalkeeper in the 1970 World Cup semi-final. A pure moment of genius. You can find the video on YouTube. I wonder if he would have done that at age 17?
http://www.trdinle.net müzik dinle

Thank you very nice. Forever Turkey.