Pelé, king of the beautiful game

HE WAS JUST a kid, aged 17. Yet in the World Cup final of 1958 Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known by his nickname of Pelé, showed the poise and supreme skill that would become the hallmarks of his career. With Brazil leading Sweden, the hosts, 2-1 he received a high pass in the penalty area. With a defender on his shoulder, he controlled the ball with his chest, took one pace and nonchalantly looped it high over another before running to meet it and drive an unstoppable volley low into the net. In all he scored six goals in four matches in that tournament. It was the first of three World Cups he was to win, more than any other player. It might have been four but, insufficiently protected by referees, he and Brazil were kicked out of the 1966 tournament by brutal defending by Bulgaria and Portugal.

Three Argentines—Alfredo di Stefano, Diego Armando Maradona and Lionel Messi—all have a claim to be the world’s best footballer. But many of the game’s shrewdest analysts, and many former players, believed the greatest of all was Pelé, who has died in a hospital in São Paulo aged 82 after a long battle with cancer. Apart from anything else, his 1,279 goals in 1,363 matches is a world record that is unlikely to be surpassed. He was the complete player, a team man who often provided the killer pass for others to finish. “He was the greatest because he could do anything and everything on a football pitch,” said Bobby Moore, the England captain who lost to him in the World Cup in 1970.