Pelé

Edson Arantes do Nascimento was born in Três Corações, Brazil, the son of a footballer whose career had been ended by injury. The family had little money. He shined shoes at the railway station and played football barefoot with a sock filled with rags or a grapefruit, because they could not afford a ball. Where his nickname came from nobody is quite sure, and he did not like it at first.

He was 15 when he joined Santos and 16 when he scored on his debut for Brazil. At the 1958 World Cup in Sweden he was 17, the youngest player in the tournament, and had spent the first two matches injured on the bench. He scored the only goal in the quarter-final, a hat-trick in the semi-final, and two in the final, and wept on his teammates' shoulders as Brazil won its first World Cup.

He was kicked out of the 1962 tournament by injury and out of 1966 by defenders who were allowed to foul him at will. He said he would never play at a World Cup again. He changed his mind, and in 1970, in Mexico, at 29, he led the team most people regard as the finest ever to play, scoring in the final again.

Santos would not sell him, and the Brazilian government declared him a national treasure to stop foreign clubs trying. He finished his career with the New York Cosmos, helping to make football a serious sport in the United States, and later served as Brazil's minister for sport.