10 Football Players Who Were Nearly One Club Men
8. Pele
With a staggering record of 1,106 appearances for Santos FC, it was impossible to forget about legendary Brazilian forward, Pele.
At least, that's his Guinness World Record total which includes friendlies and other strange one-off matches. His real stats have long been debatable at best and completely obscured at worst, not least by the man himself.
What can be confirmed as per the IFFHS, however, is that the iconic centre forward scored 541 goals in 560 league appearances for Santos.
Born a few hours drive from Vila Belmiro, Pele quickly shot to stardom. He first took to the field for the Brazilian outfit at the age of just 15 and became the top scorer in the Serie A a year later in 1957.
Not only that, but he also made debut for the Brazilian national team.
Pele certainly enjoyed a trophy-laden career: 6x Serie A, 2x Copa Libertadores, 2x Intercontinental Cup and 3x World Cup.
This, of course, attracted a lot of attention by Europe's elite, but the future Extraordinary Minister for Sport rejected them all.
That is, of course, until his move to New York Cosmos in 1975 at the age of 35. He would stay at the American club for two years before his official retirement.