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Pele, arguably the greatest football player of all time, died at the age of 82. is widely regarded as the greatest footballer of all time, an iconic sporting figure for a country that considers itself the spiritual home of the game.
Pele's greatness can be measured by the fact that he could make football a natural grace and beauty spectacle when he missed as well as when he scored.
He was one of the game's first global stars, scoring a world record 1,281 goals in 1,363 games and layering his brilliance across a career that began as a teenager with Santos and ended as a money-spinner at New York Cosmos. And Pele's name will be synonymous with football wherever it is played.
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Pele - the boy genius
Pele began his career as a young boy at Bauru FC in Sao Paulo state, where he was coached by former Brazil international Waldemar de Brito. When he attracted the attention of Brazil's elite, he chose to play for his mentor's former club Santos.
It wasn't long before, at the age of 15, he made his senior debut, scoring the first of more than 1,000 career goals in a 7-1 win over Corinthians Santo Andre.
Pele ensured Santos dominated not only in Brazil but also internationally, winning the Copa Libertadores - South America's equivalent of the Champions League - in 1962 and 1963 with play-off victories over Uruguay's Penarol and then 5-3 on aggregate against Argentina's Boca Juniors.
International recognition was unavoidable, and he donned the famous Brazil shirt for the first time against Argentina at the Maracana on 9 July 1957, aged 16 years and nine months, scoring number one of 77 goals in 92 appearances for his country in a 2-1 defeat.
Pele's main rival at the time was Portugal's legend Eusebio, but there was only one winner in the 1962 Intercontinental Cup, which pitted the winners of the Copa Libertadores and the European Cup against each other.
Pele scored twice in Santos' 3-2 victory over Benfica at the Maracana before scoring a hat-trick in the 5-2 victory at the Stadium of Light.
In Brazil, Pele will also be associated with the white shirt of Santos, for whom he scored 619 goals in 638 appearances, giving him - in his homeland, at least - the undisputed title of the game's greatest player.
Brazil's World Cup hero
Pele enchanted the world as a 17-year-old when he scored twice in Brazil's 5-2 World Cup final victory over Sweden in 1958, but he shone brightest in the galaxy of stars assembled in their legendary 1970 World Cup team, scoring the opening goal in a 4-1 victory over Italy in Mexico's Aztec Stadium.
Pele's story bookended those two great Brazilian teams, and when the "number 10" role, and indeed the shirt itself, is celebrated in the modern game, Edson Arantes do Nascimento will be remembered as the first and greatest.
When the debate over who the greatest player of all time is held - almost always in a World Cup context - Argentina's great rivals will argue for the late Diego Maradona, who almost single-handedly, literally according to England after his infamous "Hand Of God" quarter-final goal, led them to World Cup glory in 1986.
Argentines will even point to Maradona's successor Lionel Messi as a rival to Pele's greatness in an argument that will never be resolved to the satisfaction of either of these great South American rivals.
Pele, on the other hand, lacked Maradona's dark side, as evidenced by the latter's expulsion from the 1994 World Cup in the United States after testing positive for the drug ephedrine. Messi, on the other hand, has since gone on to lead Argentina to World Cup glory in 2022.
Pele, too, experienced World Cup disappointments, none more so than when he was brutally kicked out of the tournament in England in 1966.
He left the scene of Portugal's 3-1 defeat at Goodison Park draped in a blanket after a series of fouls left him limping on one leg and his right knee heavily bandaged. During the match, he had stayed on and continued throwing himself into the physical challenges to prove bravery accompanied brilliance as substitutes were not permitted.
Pele was so disgusted by his treatment in Brazil's first game against Bulgaria that he vowed never to play in another World Cup - a decision the game was grateful he later reversed.
Pele's career culminated with Brazil's World Cup victory in 1970. He was the focal point of a dream team that has gone down in game history. Pele was the main attraction, but he was joined by Rivelino, Jairzinho, Tostao, and Gerson, as well as the legendary captain and leader Carlos Alberto.
The image of a shirtless Pele being carried aloft by teammates and supporters after Brazil won the World Cup in Mexico City is indelible, as is another famous image of another shirtless embrace with England captain Bobby Moore, a gesture packed with mutual respect, after Brazil's 1-0 group game victory in Guadalajara.
The magic misses
Testimony to Pele's brilliance are two occasions in the 1970 Mexico World Cup when he failed to score - and yet are used to this day as prime exhibits of the skill, power, elegance and mental speed and agility that mark him out as arguably the greatest to have ever graced the game.
The first came in Brazil's opening group game against Czechoslovakia when Pele, from several yards inside the centre circle in his own half, received the ball languidly then spotted keeper Ivo Viktor off his line.
In an elegant, instinctive swing of his right boot, he sent the ball in a high arc towards goal, landing inches wide, with the panicking Viktor making a scrambling retreat before the relief of realising he had not been embarrassed by Pele's genius.
Fast forward to the semi-final against Uruguay, again in Guadalajara, when Pele raced at full speed on to Tostao's pass, yet still had the presence of mind to run past keeper Ladislao Mazurkiewicz, also allowing the ball to run past the pair. The keeper had been sold perhaps the greatest dummy in World Cup history.
Sadly the angle was subsequently too tight for Pele to score but the moment is still replayed whenever World Cups are relived and as the late, great BBC commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme, probably taken as much by surprise as Mazurkiewicz, said in that wonderful moment: "What genius. Incredible."
Pele the global icon
There was only one Pele. Franz Beckenbauer said Pele was "the best player in the history of football"
Pele's peak came before the days of transfers around the globe so the finest years of his club career were served out entirely in Brazil - but it is mind-boggling to even guess at the transfer fee he would have commanded in this era.
When the North America Soccer League was formed in an attempt to spread the football word to the United States, Pele became an inevitable target. The great German Franz Beckenbauer was also a focus of attention but Pele added status and glamour, heading Stateside in 1975 to close out his career at New York Cosmos.
Such was Pele's worldwide reputation that his name alone added instant credibility. The curtain came down on his career with an exhibition game between Cosmos and Santos at New York's Giants' Stadium in October 1977 after he had led them to the title in his third and final season at the club.
Pele was arguably football's first global superstar, a standing that lived on after he finished playing. The mere mention of his name conjures up images of Brazil's great teams and evokes memories from the Maracana to Mexico.
Life after football
Pele travelled the globe as an ambassador for the game, in demand around the world and also by large organisations desperate to bask in the wattage of his fame and standing.
He was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2005 BBC Sports Personality Of The Year ceremony.
Before receiving the award, recorded tributes were paid by Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff and Sir Bobby Charlton. Beckenbauer said: "He was the best player in the history of football."
The great Brazilian was back in England in March 2015 on a promotional visit, appearing on the pitch at Anfield at half-time in Liverpool's defeat by Manchester United, receiving a prolonged standing ovation from all corners of the stadium.
He was also used prominently in an ambassadorial role for Brazil, appearing at the closing ceremony for the London 2012 Olympics before the handover to the next hosts Rio, who staged the games in 2016.
Pele, however, will always be associated with "The Beautiful Game" - and arguably no-one played it more beautifully.
