José Maria da Cruz Martins (born 4 December 1973), better known as Pelé, is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and former player who coaches Casa de Portugal em Macau.

Career

Born in

São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is an island country in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa. It consists of two archipelagos around the two main isla ...

prior to it becoming independent from Portugal, Pelé moved first to the metropole and then to

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

, which was Portuguese as well (now a special administrative region of China). A

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

, he played for GD Rubro Negro,

GD Lam Pak Grupo Desportivo de Lam Pak (Traditional Chinese: 藍白, meaning blue white, the club colours) is a Macau professional football club, which plays in the town of Macau. They play in the Macau's first division, the Campeonato da 1ª Divisão do Fu ...

, Dynasty/Vong Chiu, Vá Luen, FC Porto Macau, Casa de Portugal and for the senior Macau national team. He also played in India for Goa-based clubs

Vasco SC Clube de Desportos Vasco da Gama (simply known as both Vasco Sports Club, and Vasco SC) is an Indian professional football club based in Vasco da Gama, Goa, part of the same named multi-sports club. Incorporated in 1951, the club is nickname ...

and

Churchill Brothers SC Churchill Brothers Futebol Clube de Goa (simply known as Churchill Brothers) is an Indian professional football club based in Margao, Goa, that competes in the Indian Super League, alongside the Goa Professional League (reserves). Founded in ...

References

1973 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Portuguese men's footballers Portuguese people of São Tomé and Príncipe descent Naturalized citizens of Macau Naturalised association football players Men's association football forwards Macau men's footballers Macau people of São Tomé and Príncipe descent G.D. Lam Pak players Macau men's international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in India Expatriate men's footballers in India Macau football managers {{Macau-footy-bio-stub