Top 5 greatest footballers of all time

#1 Pele (Brazil)

Pele

It is very difficult to not be carried away when writing about one of the most popular human beings of all time. Pele, also known as “O Rei” or “The King” became famous at the age of 17 when he helped Brazil become the world champions in 1958 and life has never been the same again for him since then.

He won 2 more World Cups afterwards and became the only footballer to win 3 World Cups. He spent 18 glorious years of his career with Brazilian club Santos FC. Many people claim that Pele scored more than 1000 goals in his career but the authenticity of that piece of information is questionable.

However, there is no denying the fact that Pele scored at least 600 goals for his beloved Santos. In 1975, Pele made a move to the New York Cosmos for commercial reasons and spent 2 seasons there. He also scored 77 goals for Brazil in 92 matches including 12 in the World Cups.

At the height of his career, Pele was one of the most popular persons in the world. There are also a number of mythical stories associated with him. However, all those stories often tend to make the casual football fan overlook the footballing genius of Pele. One has to remember that Pele was at equally at ease playing with his right and left foot, had a fantastic header, was a great passer and could play both as a typical striker and a No. 10.

As mentioned earlier, Pele's abilities were exhibited for the first time in the 1958 World Cup where he scored 6 goals and became a global star. However, he could not take part in the last few matches of the 1962 World Cup because of an injury.

Still, Brazil managed to win that world cup. In the 1966 World Cup too, Pele suffered an injury and Brazil lost to Portugal in the quarter-final. He, however, made amends in 1970 and won the World Cup in style. Brazil were outstanding in that World Cup. Pele scored 4 goals in the tournament and one of those goals came against Italy in the final.

Simultaneously, he made Santos one of the most successful clubs in world football, winning multiple national, continental and intercontinental titles. Pele’s Santos toyed with the likes of Benfica and Inter Milan and won the World Club Cup twice in the 1960s.

Pele was a peerless performer and many of his opponents including Johan Cruyff and Bobby Charlton praised him very highly. Naturally, FIFA made him the global ambassador to promote football and he played a vital role during the 1994 football World Cup held in the United States. In a nutshell, Pele is quite possibly the greatest sportsperson of all time.