What did McGregor, Maradona and Pelé do before they became sports legends

Soccer has had two huge legends before Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi: for 20 years, people discussed if the best player ever was Diego Maradona or Edson Arantes do Nascimento, commonly known as Pelé. Nowadays, the Portuguese from Juventus and the Argentinian star from Barcelona share their fame with another current sport icon, Conor McGregor.

What do Pelé, Maradona and McGregor have in common? Apart from having had worldwide fame, all of them had to work awfully hard before their professional life in their respective sports. Struggling with low resources and needing a job from abnormally low ages, they all had to face adversities. And of course, they won the fight…

…In the most literal sense of ways, as per McGregor, who is one of the greatest wrestlers in the world. Back in his young years he worked as a plumber, dealing with damp walls, tubes and cold. One day he decided to quit and promised his upset parents he would be a martial arts world champion. “Talent does not exist, it’s obsession. There’s not talent here, this is hard work”, he uses to say.

Pelé also had to work hard in his teenage, he was a shoemaker until Waldemar de Brito took him to Santos and allowed him to start his prolific professional career. Before making his debut for Argentinos Juniors in 1976, Diego Maradona spent his days as a fumigator. “The day I was paid for the first time I took my mother to have pizza for lunch. When we left, the wage was gone”, he used to recall.