Pele picture special: From meeting rock stars to fighting aliens on TV

Pele is pictured in 1958, the year he became a global superstar by helping Brazil win the World Cup at the age of just 17 

Here the teenage Pele strikes a shot during a training session in 1958, showing off his explosive power and athleticism

Pele jokes around in front of a target in a shooting gallery in Stockholm, in between games at the 1958 World Cup

Pele (10) causing problems for the France defence in the semi-final, which Brazil won 5-2. Pele scored a hat-trick in this game

Here chatting with young Swedish girls during the 1958 World Cup, Pele would become the most famous footballer of all time

Pele weeps on the shoulder of goalkeeper Gilmar dos Santos Neves after scoring two goals in the 1958 World Cup final

After Brazil’s 5-2 win in the final over Sweden, the world had new champions, a new superstar, and a beaming smile

After returning from Sweden, Pele was called up for national service in the Brazilian army; he he makes his oath of allegiance

Pele played for just two clubs in his career, refusing a transfer away from his boyhood team Santos before retiring, then re-emerging to play in the United States. Here he leaps high to win a header for Santos in the Sao Paulo Championship in 1959

Pele with Garrincha, arguably the greatest Brazilian player ever after Pele, in 1959 (left); and playing a board game (right)

In a sign of things to come, Pele lies on the ground in pain after receiving some rough treatment by Pernambuco in 1960

Donning a fetching chef’s hat, Pele turns his hand to some cooking for a picture taken around 1960

Pele poses with three women all wearing Mexican-style sombrero hats for a picture taken in March 1961

Ahead of a game against England in May 1963, Pele enjoys the surroundings of the Selsdon Park Hotel in Croydon

Wearing a silk shirt and stylish slacks while leaning on a gleaming Mercedes-Benz, Pele shows off his fame and fortune in 1966

Before they headed off to England for the 1966 World Cup, Pele plays acoustic guitar surrounded by his Brazil team-mates

Pele is pictured at the ceremony for his wedding to Rosemeri dos Reis Cholbi, the first of his three wives, in 1966

Pele soars above the competition for a header during Brazil’s defeat by Portugal at Goodison Park in Liverpool

The 1966 tournament was a rare miserable one for Pele as Brazil were roughly treated and eliminated in the group stage

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip present a trophy to Pele at the Maracana on a state visit to Brazil and also Chile in 1968

Pele’s fame meant he was able to meet the great and the good of global society – he is with US Senator Bobby Kennedy in the 1960s (left); his renown also saw him try his hand at acting – he grapples with a foe while playing the title role of ‘The Adventures of Plinio Pompeu’, a story of creatures from outser space who land on earth, in May 1969 (right)

In the sci-fi TV series Os Estranhos (The Strangers), Pele is here flanked by two futuristically dressed ‘aliens’

At the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, Pele saw England goalkeeper Gordon Banks make what has regularly been described as the greatest save of all time, flying to his right to somehow claw away the Brazilian’s firm header in Guadalajara

There are few sporting images more iconic than Pele’s embrace with England captain Bobby Moore after that game, a show of great mutual admiration, respect and sportsmanship; Pele would later get his hands on the Jules Rimet Trophy once again

Even in Brazil’s ‘dream team’ of 1970, Pele was still head and shoulders above the rest, literally in this case as he is hauled aloft by his team-mates after winning the final against Italy, 4-1, in Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium. Pele had scored the first goal

Golden boots were apt for the greatest striker of all time, here with Santos in 1970 (left); the only other club he played for was New York Cosmos, having come out of retirement in 1975 to help launch soccer in the United States (right)

Pele displays a crown presented to him after scoring his 1,000th career goal – he was nicknamed ‘The King’

Pele’s monumental goalscoring feat is spelled out in footballs for this triumphant picture in December 1970

In Rio de Janeiro on 18 July 1971, Pele played his final international match for Brazil, against Yugoslavia (above)

After arriving at the Cosmos, Pele speaks with guest host Bert Convy on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in July 1975

Pele’s engagements also took him to the White House to meet President Richard Nixon (left), before he left office in 1974, and a meeting with Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone (right)

Pele enjoys a moment with another 1970s showbiz pal, rock star Rod Stewart, who is famously a fan of Celtic and Scotland

In his most famous acting role, Pele starred alongside both acting and football royalty in the 1981 film Escape to Victory, about a team of Allied prisoners of war taking on a team of Nazis in a bid to escape capture. Back Row (left-right): Russell Osman, Paul Van Himst, Mike Summerbee, Sylvester Stallone, John Wark, Kazimierz Deyna, Soren Linsted; Front Row: Hallvar Thoresen, Ossie Ardiles, Michael Caine, Pele, Bobby Moore and Co Prins

Pele said his biggest regret was never having played competitively at Wembley, but here he gets a taste of the old stadium, scoring past his old rival Gordon Banks from the penalty spot during a friendly kickabout

Pele hands Formula One legend Michael Schumacher the trophy for winning the 2000 Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo

Golf’s greatest meets football’s greatest as Tiger Woods and Pele pose together at the 20th Century Sports Awards (left); Pele shows his skills to a group of Cuju players, an ancient game played with a leather ball which in China is claimed to be the ‘origin’ of football, at the Great Wall of China at Badaling in March 2002 (right)

Pele with his second wife Assiria Lemos Seixas and the FIFA president Sepp Blatter next to Andy Warhol’s portrait of him 

Pele congratulates Ronaldo, the player of the tournament, after Brazil won yet another World Cup in Japan in 2002

Now with another Ronaldo – Cristiano – Pele hands the young superstar FIFA’s 2008 world footballer of the year award

The only player ever considered by many to be Pele’s equal was Diego Maradona. The rivals are here together at Euro 2016

Pele poses with his third wife, Marcia Aoki, at the premiere of ‘Pele: Birth of a Legend’ during the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival

Having helped Rio de Janeiro win hosting rights for the 2016 Games, Pele here enjoys hoisting the Olympic torch

As his health declined in recent years Pele was rarely seen in public. His daughter Kely Nascimento posted a picture of them together with Pele smiling on a hospital bed in Sao Paulo after he underwent surgery for colon cancer in September 2021

Pele, pictured here with Marcia Aokoi, was admitted to hospital on November 30 and remained until his death