“Football is the beautiful game,” Pele once proclaimed in an attempt to encapsulate the universal appeal of his lifelong passion. And no man did more to justify that simple but compellingly eloquent description than the great Brazilian himself.
In the decades since his galvanising displays in the 1958 World Cup finals, the name of the one-time street urchin who exchanged childhood poverty for global fame has been a byword for ultimate sporting excellence.
