Pele: A football legend in pictures

Santos was Pele's first club and the one where he would spend the majority of his career. It was at Santos that Pele made his professional debut at the age of 15. In addition to playing in domestic and international competitions, the club also toured Europe and America. Here he is seen in action for Santos in a 1970 friendly against the Washington Darts of the North American Soccer League.

Pele burst onto the world stage at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. The then 17-year-old made his debut in Brazil's third game against the USSR, becoming the youngest player to appear at a World Cup. He scored a hat-trick in Brazil's semifinal win over France and a brace in their 5-2 victory over Sweden in the final. Pele finished the tournament with six goals in just four matches.

Pele called football "the beautiful game," and that was the way he liked to play it. Operating mainly but not exclusively as a striker, Pele combined speed, creativity and supreme technical skill that allowed him to run with the ball at opponents and dribble past them. He also had a flair for the spectacular and was capable of scoring with bicycle kicks, like this one from 1968.

Having won a second-straight World Cup in Chile in 1962, it was with high hopes that Brazil traveled to England four years later. Pele scored from a free kick against Bulgaria, becoming the first player to score in three successive World Cups. However, both Bulgarian and Portuguese defenders resorted to brutal fouls in an effort to neutralize Pele. Brazil were eliminated in the first round.

The 1970 World Cup would be Pele's last and it would also be a happy ending. After Brazil beat Italy 4-1 in the final in Mexico City's Azteca Stadium, Pele's teammates hoisted him onto their shoulders in celebration. The third World Cup triumph meant that Brazil were allowed to keep the Jules Rimet trophy for good. He finished the tournament with four goals and won the Golden Ball as best player.

Pele played his 97th and final match for Brazil on July 18, 1971. More than 100,000 supporters packed into Rio de Janeiro's Maracana Stadium to see Yugoslavia play Brazil to a 2-2 draw. Pele was still only 30 and would go on to play several more years of club football, at first with the only team he had ever known until then, Santos.

After the 1974 season, Pele announced his retirement from club football, but just a year later he followed the call of the greenback to join the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League. His mission: to grow soccer in a country in love with American football and baseball. He capped off his time there by leading the Cosmos to victory in the 1977 Soccer Bowl, the NASL's title game.

Pele played his final game for the Cosmos against his longtime team Santos in Giants Stadium on October 1, 1977. Among those on hand were West Germany legend and teammate Franz Beckenbauer (fourth from right) and former Brazil teammate Carlos Alberto (third from right). That's not to mention boxing legend Muhammad Ali (right).

In 1981, Pele (bottom row, third from right) turned his hand to acting in the film Escape to Victory, about a team of Allied prisoners of war who play a football match against their Nazi captors. In the film, Pele starred alongside Hollywood actors Michael Caine (bottom row, third from left) and Sylvester Stallone (top row, fourth from right).

Pele had a number of jobs after his playing career was over and in 1994 he was appointed as a UNESCO goodwill ambassador. A year later, Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso (left) appointed the former striker to the position of "extraordinary minister for sport." Pele proposed legislation aimed at reducing corruption in Brazilian football. The legislation became known as "the Pele law."

Pele married three times and had several children both in and out of wedlock. Son Edinho (right) went on to have a professional football career as a goalkeeper, including with his father's old club, Santos. Edinho later found himself on the wrong side of the law and was handed a lengthy jail sentence after being convicted on charges of money laundering and drug trafficking.

In his later years Pele would face a number of health challenges. In 2012 he underwent a successful hip operation, but he was using a wheelchair by the time he attended the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Here he is seen with Russian President Vladimir Putin and another footballing legend, Diego Maradona. A month later, Pele wound up in hospital and had surgery to remove kidney stones.