Google search packs a surprise kick for soccer legend Pelé's birthday
Have a ball while learning about the man widely considered the greatest soccer player of all time.
Pelé (in yellow jersey) on the ball for Brazil during a 1966 World Cup match.
Google is scoring a search surprise to celebrate the 80th birthday of Pelé, who's widely regarded as the greatest soccer player ever.
An adept striker with keen dribbling skills and a wicked bicycle kick, the Brazilian won three FIFA World Cups (1958, 1962 and 1970), the only player to accomplish the feat. Pelé retired in 1977 with a record 1,279 goals in 1,363 games. He's also the most successful top division scorer, with 541 goals.
To celebrate his achievements, Google planted an Easter egg in its search results for the famed forward and midfielder. Merely perform a Google search for Pelé and scroll to the bottom of the results page. There you'll find the Google logo with a soccer ball where the 10th 'o' usually appears (in honor of the number Pelé wore on his jersey). Click on it for the search surprise.
Google loves to plant search surprises to honor anniversaries and events. In September, it honored the 30th anniversary of the debut of TV sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air with a trip down memory lane.
In April 2019, in the run-up to the release of the movie Avengers: Endgame, a simple Google query for Thanos, the supervillain who snapped away half the universe in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War, would instantly turn search results to dust.
Google also celebrated the Fourth of July this year with a flurry of brightly colored fireworks for searches about Independence Day. But for more-challenging results, search on Google for "askew," "anagram" or "do a barrel roll."