I was born for soccer, just as Beethoven was born for music.
Edson Arantes do Nascimento was named after Thomas Edison, because electricity had just reached Três Corações. It's the last recorded instance of Pelé arriving anywhere second.
He remains the only player, man or woman, to win three World Cups — the first at seventeen, scoring twice in the 1958 final. And he gave football its favourite name for itself: his autobiography called it the beautiful game, and the phrase stuck because he'd spent two decades proving it.
The moments
1958
A 17-year-old wins the World Cup
In the final against host nation Sweden on 29 June, the teenager scored twice in a 5-2 win — one of them a chest-lob-volley over a defender that announced a new era.
1969
O Milésimo
His 1,000th goal, a penalty for Santos against Vasco da Gama at the Maracanã on 19 November, dedicated to the children of Brazil. The pitch flooded with people before the game could restart.
1970
The perfect team, the perfect fourth goal
Mexico 70: the opening goal in the final, the no-look pass for Carlos Alberto's thunderbolt, and a third World Cup that let Brazil keep the Jules Rimet trophy forever.
1975
Football's first global export
He signed for the New York Cosmos at Manhattan's 21 Club on 10 June, taking the game to a country that didn't yet know it wanted it.
1977
One half for each love
His farewell at Giants Stadium on 1 October: first half in Cosmos white, second half in Santos white, and a request to the crowd to say the word love three times.
Kings are usually a metaphor. For seventy years, Brazil meant this one literally.