Pele is Brazil’s joint all-time leading goalscorer, with 77 goals in 92 internationals. He is the only player to win three FIFA World Cups, in 1958, 1962 and 1970.
In 1999, he was named Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee and one year later he was voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics.
FIFA, world football’s governing body, refers to him as ‘the Greatest’.
Pele was born in 1940 in the municipality of Tres Coracoes, the son of Fluminense footballer Dondinho and Celeste Arantes.
He made his debut for Santos aged just 15 and was handed his first full Brazil cap at 16. He scored on his debut for his nation, and remains the youngest-ever scorer for Brazil 65 years later.
Pele is Santos’ all-time top goalscorer with 643 goals from 659 games and helped the Brazilian side to win multiple trophies, including six league titles, the 1962 and 1963 Copa Libertadores and also 1962 and 1963 Intercontinental Cup.
Later in his career, he moved to the New York Cosmos. Pele became one of the stars of the North American Soccer League. He scored 37 goals in 64 games for the club, and in 2010 he was named their honorary president.
His total of 1,279 goals in 1,363 games — which somewhat controversially includes friendlies — is recognised as a Guinness World Record.
But it is for his feats in the famous yellow shirt of Brazil that Pele will be best remembered.
He became one of the world’s first truly global black sports stars at the 1958 World Cup and is the only player in history to win that tournament three times.
Pele was admired by his peers. Three-time Ballon d’Or winner Michel Platini compared him to “a God” while in 2015 Cristiano Ronaldo said: “Pele is the greatest player in football history, and there will only be one Pele.”
