Top 5 Brazilian footballers of all time

2. Pele

Pele was football's first world superstar.

Perhaps the first football superstar, Pele is still regarded to this day as one of the best players ever, with some regarding him as the very best. With three world cups and an alleged 1000 goals to his name, Pele was a force of nature in his playing days.

Known for his skill, speed, playmaking, heading ability, and so much more, he was undeniably the best player of his generation. No quote highlights this better than the one attributed to footballing legend Puskas, who said "The greatest player in history was Di Stefano as I refuse to classify Pelé as a player. He was above that."

Pele remains football's greatest ever goalscorer statistically. Though Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are approaching his figures, for the meantime he still stands supreme. The Brazilian legend scored 77 goals for Brazil (a record) and a staggering 650 club goals.

Although, as aforementioned, Messi and Ronaldo are approaching Pele's goalscoring record, neither player boasts a goal-to-game ratio equal to Pele. With a ratio of 0.92, Pele holds one of the greatest goal-to-game ratios in footballing history.

Whilst his international career is immaculate, some criticise the Brazilian for never having played in a tough European league during his club career. Though Pele scored an unfathomable amount of goals, one must ponder whether his figures would have been so great had he faced stiffer competition on a club level.

If his international career is anything to go by, one imagines he would have been just fine!