Pele launches Goals for Life to benefit children's hospital in Brazil

Pele launches 'Goals for Life'

When Pele scored his one thousandth goal, in November 1969, he dedicated it ‘to the children of Brazil’. Now, thirty years after his retirement from football, he is the patron of Goals for Life, a project raising funds for the Pequeno Príncipe (Little Prince) children’s hospital complex in the city of Curitiba in southern Brazil. Pequeno Príncipe is the largest hospital of its kind in Brazil, treating almost 250,000 patients a year and conducting internationally important research into serious diseases affecting children. The principal fundraising initiative is the sale of gold, silver and bronze medals representing each of the 1,283 goals Pele scored during his career. For José Álvaro Carneiro, the co-ordinator of Goals for Life, Pelé’s participation is vital as it gives the project ‘the chance to attract both Brazilian and international funding in the cause of children’s health’.

The project was launched today at a press conference at the Embassy of Brazil in London, attended by Pelé himself. During the event, Pelé used a chisel to break the moulds used to make the medals, therefore publicly guaranteeing their uniqueness. Describing his commitment to Goals for Life, Pelé said that sees it as a means of ‘giving something back’.

Specially produced by the Brazilian national mint, each medal has been individually laser-inscribed with the number of the goal it represents. Buyers of the medals will also receive a personalised certificate bearing the date of the goal, and the game in which it was scored. The medals can be viewed and bought on the website www.golspelavida.org.br: the gold ones have a price of around 830 pounds (3,000 Brazilian reais), the silver 415, and the bronze 195.

Given that Pelé scored 77 goals in international matches for Brazil, and many others for Santos and New York Cosmos in friendlies against foreign clubs, lots of the medals have a connection with football in other countries. In the case of England, not only are there medals representing the single goal Pelé scored for Brazil against the English national team (in May 1964 in the Maracanã stadium, Rio de Janeiro), but also goals in friendlies for Santos against Coventry City, Fulham, Newcastle United, Plymouth Argyle, Sheffield Wednesday, Stoke City and West Ham United between 1962 and 1973.

Some of the medals representing particularly important goals in Pelé’s career – including his one thousandth, and those he scored in World Cup matches – will be auctioned by Christie’s in the United Arab Emirates in April 2008.

Pele