FOOTBALL THE FOOTBALLER OF THE COMMON MAN.

Jogo Bonito. When a certain Brazilian player used this phrase to describe football and how it should be played, he not only started a cultural revolution, which culminated in the sport being globally renowned as 'the Beautiful Game', he also moulded the playing style of the nation he represented to fit the phrase. And boy, did it reap rewards.

Edson Arantes do Nascimento was born in Tres Coracoes in 1940. Neither that name nor the place would sound familiar. His father had played professional football with Fluminense FC, so the love for the game was in his genes. But due to poverty, little Edson had to work odd shifts in tea shops or shine shoes to save money for kits and balls.

In primary school, he mispronounced the name of his favourite football player, the CR Vasco da Gama goalkeeper Bile. The other kids, keen not to let it slide by, nicknamed him Pele. The name stuck. Soon after, he was playing youth football for local clubs, leading Bauru Atletico juniors to Sao Paulo youth championships. His performances earned him a trial with Santos FC, who signed him at the tender age of 15. The rest is history.

He scored his first goal on his debut, then ended up as the top scorer in his first full season the following year, which earned him a call-up to the Brazilian national team. He scored his first international goal on debut too, remaining Brazil's youngest goal scorer to date.

Remembering Pele, football's first global superstar, who epitomised 'the Beautiful Game' and who passed away December 29 ...

Soon afterwards the FIFA World Cup returned for its sixth edition in Sweden, where a 17-year-old Pele announced himself on the global stage, scoring six goals over the course of the tournament, despite sitting out the first two matches.

He scored twice in the final, as Brazil beat the hosts to secure their first World Cup title, and remained the only teenager to score in a final till a certain Kylian Mbappe did it in 2018. He also remains the youngest hat-trick scorer in World Cups for the treble he put past France in the semi-finals.

Now we could go on and on about his footballing achievements: the two Copa Libertadores successes, the multiple league and cup wins in between, the 1962 World Cup triumph in which he was injured ... But that is all supplementary, in a way. It was the matter in which he did all of it which mattered.

Pele played with a type of grace and intelligence which was decades ahead of his time. And he had everything in his...