One of the most significant soccer players of the 20th century was Pele. He is viewed by many as the greatest soccer player of all time. Pele positively influenced society in various ways. Some claim that Pele was not influential because all he did was play soccer, however this is not true because through his paly, he inspired many and was also involved in a variety of humanitarian and peace causes. Being portrayed as the greatest soccer player of all time, winning various soccer awards during/after his career, and his involvement in many humanitarian/peace acts along with helping rid of corruption in soccer all prove that he has had a positive influence. One way that Pele has had a positive impact on society was how he is viewed by many as the best soccer player of all time. At age 16 Pele scored his first professional goal in his debut game …show more content…
Pele was awarded the International peace award in 1978 for his work with UNICEF. Pele has served as a United Nations ecology and environment ambassador (Pele Biography, 2). In addition to these extraordinary achievements, on December third 1997 Pele was awarded honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II of Britain (Pele Fast Facts, 2). Pele stated, “In 35 years I have only wanted to help Brazil. Always I am going to fight against corruption”. Pele became the sports minister of Brazil in 1997 where he would continue to fight against corruption in Brazilian soccer (ABC-CLIO, 2). In 1998, A law to address the corruption in Brazilian soccer is passed and is nicknamed the “Pele Law”, further showing his dedication against Brazilian soccer corruption (Pele Fast Facts, 3).The wide variety of peace and humanitarian acts Pele performed along with how he fought Corruption all support the fact that Pele has had a positive impact on