There are many debates about who is the greatest footballer of all time: Maradona, Messi, Ronaldo, Cruyff... But no one disputes who is the king: Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known worldwide as Pelé, who died on 29 December at the age of 82.

One record that no other player has yet managed to break is that of the youngest player to make his debut for Brazil. Pelé played his first game at the age of 16 years and eight months. Compared to Pele, Ronaldo made his debut when he was almost a year older and Neymar Jr. when he was almost two years older.

If before the statistics of Pelé's career stood out in the first level matches, within these, the matches he played with the Canarinha also stand out. According to Transfermark data, Pelé is the player with the most goals scored for Brazil, 77 in 92 games, although he is the 15th player to have played the most games. Neymar Jr. has managed to score the same number of goals, although he has needed 124 games to do so.

Pele also holds the record for being the youngest player to score at a World Cup. The Brazilian scored his first World Cup goal in 1958, aged just 17 years and 239 days, smashing the record once held by Mexico's Manuel Rosas, who scored in the 1930 World Cup at the age of 18 years and 90 days. The third player in the ranking is Spain's Gavi, who scored at the World Cup in Qatar at the age of 18 years and 110 days.

With these goals, Pelé also became the youngest player to score three times in the same match and the youngest player to score, make his debut and win a World Cup. As in 1958, The King of Football went on to win two more World Cups: Chile 1962 and Mexico 1970.

In 2000, Pelé was voted the greatest footballer of the 20th century by FIFA, the International Federation of Football History and Statistics and in a vote by Ballon d'Or winners. The International Olympic Committee awarded him the title of "best sportsman of the 20th century".

It was not until a few years ago, when Pelé had already retired, that he received the Ballon d'Or. Despite all his achievements during his sporting career, the Brazilian received the award as the best player in the world until 2014, because until 1994, only European footballers could receive it. That year, FIFA awarded the Honorary Ballon d'Or to Pelé in recognition of his entire sporting career.

Over the course of his three-decade career, Pelé won several titles. The three most famous ones that put him at the top of the football Olympus were the World Cups he won with Brazil in Sweden in 1958, in Chile in 1962 and in Mexico in 1970. With the New York Cosmos, already in the twilight of his career, he won a National League, the only one he achieved in his strange adventure in the United States. With Santos of Brazil, where he spent 18 seasons, Pelé achieved South American glory by winning the Copa Libertadores on two occasions, and then the Intercontinental Cup, now known as the Club World Cup.

Although this is not his football career, Pele was able to take advantage of his fame to explore other fields such as music and acting and continue his legacy as a king. According to IMDB, Edson Arantes do Nascimiento participated in 11 productions: 10 films and one television production. The most famous was 1981's 'Victory', in which he was directed by John Huston and shared the screen with two Golden Globe winners: Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine. It is not known whether Huston was enchanted by Pelé's performance, who also appeared alongside him in the 1983 film, 'A Minor Miracle', in which he played himself. He was also in films such as 'Solidão', 'Uma Linda História de Amor', 'Pedro Mico' and the 1972 historical film 'A Marcha'. But he didn't only act. He also sang. His duets with Elis Regina in the 1960s and the 2006 album 'Ginga' are famous.

If there is one thing that stands out about Pelé's statistics, it is his goals in top-level matches. According to the RSSSF, the Brazilian striker is the player who scored the most goals in top-level matches (1,283), surpassing the Austrian-Czech Josef Bican (1,081) and Hungary's Ferenc Puskas (1,011). Counting only top-level official matches until 18 December 2022, 'O Rei' scored 769 goals and is second only to Cristiano Ronaldo (821) and Lionel Messi (795).

The nickname "O'Rei" or The King was born after the 1958 World Cup, when Paris Match magazine dedicated a cover to him, calling him Le Roi (The King). After that, he became known in Brazil as "O'Rei Pelé".