Edson Arantes di Nascimento remains the most famous footballer on earth - more than 25 years after his retirement - and it is his World Cup achievements which have chiefly garnered that accolade.
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Pele sobs tears of joy after Brazil win Mexico '70
(HultonArchive/Allsport) |
Though his achievement of scoring over 1,000 career goals is amazing, the Pele of 1958 and 1970 is the most potent image.
At just 17, then the youngest player to play in the finals, Pele took the 1958 tournament by storm, scoring six goals, including two in the final against Sweden. One of that brace saw him control the ball, hook it over his shoulder and smash in an unerring volley.
Chile in 1962 saw Pele injure his hamstring in the second match and miss out on his country's second successive World Cup win.
Four years later he was again injury-hit, the victim of some disgraceful tackling from Bulgaria and Hungary as Brazil crashed out in the first round.
Mexico 1970 is the tournament that fully cemented the Pele's position at the head of World Cup legends. Playing in an amazing attacking force, Pele scored four goals and supplied many of the bullets for Rivelino, Jairzinho and Tostao.
His opener in the final against Italy, an object lesson in the bullet header, made him only the second player to score in two World Cup finals but it is the goals that never were which remain the strongest memories of Pele in 1970.
An amazing shot from the half-way line against Czechoslovakia which just missed the post and an amazing feint, dribble and shot against Uruguay are two of World Cup football's enduring images.
