1.5 The finest footballer of all time was a compound of strength, courage, speed, technique and agility. Pele had scored over 1000 goals in first-class football before he was 29. Born Edson Arantes do Nascimento into a poor negro family, by 16 he was an international, and at 17 scored two astonishing goals in the World Cup Final of 1958 against Sweden. He was less fortunate in the 1962 and 1966 World Cups, dropping out after a couple of matches in 1962 with a pulled muscle, and suffering painful injury at the hands of brutal defenders in 1966. He swore he would never play in another World Cup, but changed his mind and proved a crucial force in Brazil's triumphant 1970 win. His success as a striking, goal- scoring inside-left was the more remarkable in that it coincided with the era of packed, ruthless defences. In 1974 he refused to play for Brazil in the World Cup but accepted a $4.5 million contract to play for the New York Cosmos. This was because, for the second time in his life, he had been ruined in a business deal. He remains the unattainable ideal to which all footballers - especially the Brazilian ones - strive @ 2.2 JIMMY GREAVES is back in English football. Two moves, from Chelsea to Milan and then back to Spurs, involved a total of Ł178,000 in transfer fees. His salary from Spurs will be something like Ł5,000 a year. But none of this compares with the fabulous soccer star from South America. Italian club Juventus couldn't persuade Santos of Brazil to sell him for Ł550,000. At 20, he's reputed to be the richest footballer in the world with a salary of Ł1,000 a week. He aims to make enough money to retire from professional football and play as an amateur. The lithe young Negro slipped away from the statuesque blonde who had been on his arm all evening and quietly denied marriage plans that would have commanded taller headlines in South America than any revolution. His name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento. He calls himself Pele. He is 20 years old and the world's richest footballer. He is probably the greatest player of all time. Pele is a few months younger than Jimmy Greaves and plays in the same inside-forward position. Greaves rated an Ł80,000 offer from Italy. For Pele the Italian club Juventus bid Ł550,000 and still couldn't persuade his club Santos to sell. Pele was holding court in Brazil on one of the two nights a month in which he permits himself a heavy "date." Just a sober, unpretentious party that did not match or hit his income of Ł1,000 a week. But it was in the Hollywood idiom that he explained his love-life - "Just good friends, very good friends," he said. "I will marry only when I meet the girl who does not like Pele the player, but Edson Arantes do Nascimento the man." Every morning his mail contains around 30 letters from women. Rich women and beautiful women. Seeking to marry him. Eager to give all their favours for just one meeting. Begging for even an old lace from his boot. Yet his rare hours of romance are agreed only after a cold-blooded analysis of his football programme. Only once has he been in a night club-to celebrate Brazil's world cup triumph when he starred and scored in the final at the age of 17. I saw him take the floor with a girl of Anita Ekberg proportions whose mighty shoulders almost enveloped him. He looked like a bewildered black choirboy lost in a La Dolce Vita party. But he is as immortal in Brazil as Hobbs or Matthews here. So great is his popularity that he finds it almost impossible to pay for anything he wants. Shopkeepers insist on making everything a gift. Although Pele makes Greaves look a novice, both as a player and a businessman, I doubt whether any British footballer could approach his sport with quite the fanatical professionalism of the Brazilian idol. He has never smoked, is completely teetotal and his every meal is worked out by experts to the last calorie. Twelve hours' sleep every night, two hours' rest every afternoon and a thorough medical check after every training session. And to think Greaves called Italian methods tough! Financially, however, Pele is in paradise. His property investment and building company alone could make him a millionaire before he is 30. Wealthy fans helped him start; within two years he had provided at least one house for all his poor relations. He is also "Mr. Coffee" of Brazil with a personal publicity campaign worth Ł6,000 a year. His autobiography - "I AM PELE" - has already sold 100,000 copies in Brazil and in the worldwide translations the English and German rights alone will net him Ł20,000. Yet he still lives in the same, small, modest hotel with a few Santos clubmates. His delight is to help with the homework of the black orphan boy he has adopted. For he remembers the time six years ago when he was just another black urchin in this rags or riches country where his African forebears were shipped as slaves. Two ambitions remain unfulfilled for Pele. To find and reward the old man who saved him from drowning as a schoolboy. To make money so fast that he can afford to turn amateur and play football for Santos "just for kicks." Like Stanley Matthews he says - "It is enough to play the game I love." And maybe that is their secret. @ 2.4 IT WAS the first time, he said, he had ever trembled. He was called upon to take a penalty. More than 70,000 voices demanded that he take it. He held back. "P-e-l-e ... P-e-l-e ..." they chanted. He still held back. Another voice over the public address system at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday night insisted: "Pele MUST kick. Pele MUST kick. Only after Pele scores his 1,000th goal will peace, calm and serenity return to Brazilian soccer fans. They could have added: "to the whole of Brazil." He moved up to place the ball on the spot. The "peace" and "calm" arrived as the stadium hushed and stood like an empty shell. He stepped back from the ball. It was hell for the guy. There had been 999 goals before, and few of them had bothered him. But the country needed this goal-he needed it. Andrada, the goalkeeper of Vasco da Gama, had his own thoughts. He had stopped earlier Pele efforts. Now what was he to do? If he saved it he wouldn't be very popular. Nobody wanted him to save it not even his own fans. The world's most complete footballer moved forward and stroked the ball gently, ever so carefully, into the left-hand corner of the net. He had scored it at last. The moment of "serenity" for a nation had come. The crowd came on to the pitch and hoisted him onto their shoulders. The 28-year-old genius, once a penniless boy in Tres Coracoes, Central Brazil, had passed a scoring milestone that no other footballer in the world had ever reached, or, I dare say, will ever reach. He pulled a new jersey - numbered 10, naturally - over his playing shirt and embraced his team mates before going off so that the game could restart. There were only 12 minutes play left. It was then that he said: "Tonight was the first time I have ever trembled." @ 2.6 Pele, and Brazil, won the World Cup for keeps when they tore Italy apart 4-1 in the Aztec Stadium here tonight. Pele, the King, led his court of 10 super, soccer princes in another display of genius that had 112,000 lucky subjects in the stadium paying due homage and 800million TV viewers gasping. Fittingly, he opened the scoring and, after the ever so slight scare of an Italian equaliser through Boninsegna, his men took over and wrapped up the game through goals by Gerson, Jairzinho and Alberto. Praise flooded in from the four corners of Pele's kingdom - but it was Brazil coach Mario Zagallo who summed it all up: "Pele proved today why he is considered the world's best soccer player. He crowned himself once more as the king of soccer. He has achieved what probably no one will be able to do again - that is to win three World cups" And the King himself said: "This was my last World Cup. I am the happiest man in the world. I was sure we would win as soon as we controlled the midfield," he added before being escorted to the team bus by four steel-helmeted policemen. Brazil's speedy outside-left, Rivelino, fainted during the mobbing after the match. "I don't know exactly what happened, but it seemed hundreds of people were pouring over me," he said later. "I could not breathe and suddenly everything went black." British sportsmen were full of praise for the champions. Bobby Moore, England captain, said: "A fine game, two fine sides. Gerson's wonderful goal turned the match for Brazil." And Gordon Banks, the England goalkeeper, added: "Brazil put the pressure on much more in the second half and it was inevitable that the Italians would crack eventually." Joe Mercer, manager, of Manchester City: "This shows that football is about individual talent. It's wonderful to see a team with so much to offer in that respect win this trophy." In Rio de Janeiro, the victory was greeted with an unprecedented explosion of joy in which thousands of chanting people danced in the streets. As soon as the cup was handed over, main squares and avenues were blocked with crowds snake-dancing to the samba drums. Even babies in prams waved tiny Brazilian flags while air force planes zoomed through the skies and thousands of balloons with the national colours were set loose.