Soccer: A Pele by any other name

Pele was so angry with a school classmate who dreamed up his nickname that he punched him, the soccer great recalled yesterday.

"Pele isn't my real name," the Brazilian told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag in an interview.

"My name is Edson. I didn't come up with Pele myself. I didn't want the name. Pele sounds like baby-talk in Portuguese. Edson sounds like Thomas Edison, the man who invented the light bulb.

"But a classmate wanted to anger me with the name Pele. ... I punched him ... I was actually a good student and wouldn't hurt a fly. But for the punch I got suspended from school for two days."