Joshua Seixas Arantes do Nascimento (born 28 September 1996) is a Brazilian former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a forward. He is the son of Pelé.

Early and personal life

Nascimento was born to Brazilian gospel singer Assiria Seixas Lemos and Brazilian football legend Pelé. He has a twin sister named Celeste.

Footballing career

Early career

At the age of ten, he trained with Santos, the club where his father made his name, for the first time. He moved to the United States at the age of twelve, and joined the academy side Florida Rush three years later. He returned to Brazil in 2013, joining Santos on a permanent deal. While at Santos, he refused to wear his father's famous number 10 shirt, and attempted to ignore comparisons between himself and his father, stating "he was him and I am me." He made his debut for the Santos under-20 side in October 2014.

Collegiate soccer

Having suffered numerous injuries while at Santos, Nascimento returned to the United States to enrol at the

University of Tampa The University of Tampa (UT) is a private university in Tampa, Florida. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. UT offers more than 200 programs of study, including 22 master's degrees and a broad variety of majors, ...

in 2015. However, his time in Tampa was also marred by injury, and he was

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

in his first season with the university's soccer team, the

Tampa Spartans The Tampa Spartans are the athletic teams that represent the University of Tampa, located in Tampa, Florida, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Spartans compete as members of the Sunshine State Conference for all sports besides beach ...

. He made one appearance in 2016, but this would be his only playing time until his graduation in 2018.

Later life

Having been raised mostly in the United States, he decided to remain there following his decision not to pursue a career in professional football, and he was named as a representative for Santos in North America in 2020. He joined the SIMA Pre-Academy, a soccer academy for children, in 2021. He has also worked as a fitness instructor and soccer coach in soccer academies across Orlando, as well as completing an internship in the Santos academy physiology department. Having graduated university with a Bachelor of Science in human performance and exercise physiology, Nascimento had an internship with Belgian football team Royale Union Saint-Gilloise in March 2022, in the hope of working as a physical trainer. He currently works as a physical trainer at the Soccer Institute of the Montverde Academy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nascimento, Joshua 1996 births Living people Footballers from São Paulo University of Tampa alumni Brazilian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Santos FC players Tampa Spartans men's soccer players Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States