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Louise bought me this for Christmas.

I had considered buying this book many times over the years but always held off as I wasn't a major fan of the person and had a suspicion he was overrated.

However, since his sad death and having read major tributes, including a fantastic issue of the UK's World Soccer magazine, I was left more intrigued to learn more.

I now wish I had done this earlier. This is a fantastically enjoyable autobiography, in which Pele really takes you inside how it felt to win the World Cup in Sweden in 1958 aged just 17. Unlike other similar books, this doesn't focus on the way the success was achieved at the expense of what it meant. Edson Arantes do Nascimento has an amazing ability to recall his emotions and really take you inside his head. What makes it more charming is that he was very humble and is open and honest about how much it meant to him (winning it for his dad after promising him as a 10 year old in 1950 following the Maracanazo).

There is an investing dichotomy of Pele being humble and never losing sight of his origins and family but also having a massive ego about his ability. But maybe this is just honest appraisal of someone who was undoubtedly the best in the history of the game at this point rather than being disingenuous and unnecessarily humble.

It was also great to get an insight into his endless commercial activity and endorsements and understand the underlying reasons, of a fear of being poor again and so many awful business dealings and ventures with untrustworthy individuals.

Other failings include his three marriages, being unfaithful, having an illegitimate daughter he refused to acknowledge for many years, and he doesn't really accept these are issues and instead gives himself an out of relationships being only about love. It was always interesting that all of his relationships seemed to be with white (or ethnically Japanese) women, and this led me to a side exploration of the cultural reasons this might be more than coincidence.

Where I don't think he should be criticised, and where he often has, is in his refusal to involve himself in politics, particularly the Brazilian dictatorship, and in race relations in terms of speaking on the subject of discrimination and racism. To me, it was clear Pele was not motivated nor overly interested in these things, did not adequately understand them and was not eloquent enough to communicate on the subjects in a useful way. He was a largely an uneducated boy from rural Brazil who seemed naive to the wide world in many ways.

Another controversy is Pele's club footballing achievements. The way he lists his 1000 odd goals and includes all sorts of friendlies and exhibitions has never sat well with me as no other player in history includes these stars. However, in reading this book, you come to realise just how many of these matches Pele actually had to play with Santos touring and how so many were more than friendlies in the way they were treated.

On a similar note, I have more appreciation for the fact that him not playing in Europe is not as significant as it appears. Santos, at their peak, were probably the best club side in the world and Brazilian club football, the best domestic competition. But it really would have been fascinating and status cementing if he had taken up the sizeable offers from the likes of Inter and Juventus.