This development was announced on Wednesday by the publishers of Michaelis Dictionaries. Pelé Foundation began a campaign to include the nickname in the dictionary following the footballer's death last year. Over 125,000 signatures were garnered, and this prompted the publishers to add the name to their entries.
The digital edition of the Portuguese-language dictionary has already been updated, while the printed edition will be updated in the next publishing version.
The new entry reads, “pe.lé adj. That or someone who is out of the ordinary, who or who by virtue of their quality, value, or superiority cannot be equalled to anything or anyone, just like Pelé, the nickname of Edson Arantes do Nascimento (1940-2022), who is considered the greatest athlete of all time; exceptional, incomparable, unique.”
Pelé is considered the greatest footballer in history, with an outstanding record of three FIFA World Cup titles and a total of 1,281 goals scored throughout his career.
He played for Brazil's national team, Santos, and the New York Cosmos for two decades. However, the number of goals he scored is often debated by various sources, with many citing that a significant number of those goals were scored during multiple unofficial matches.
The Rec Sports Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) determined that Pelé scored 767 goals in 831 games based on competitive matches only.