The easy thing would be to say that few men or women transcend their sport but that Pele was one of them.
But that would not quite do justice to Edson Arantes do Nascimento because Pele did not transcend football … he WAS football. He IS football.
He IS the beautiful game, he IS everything it stands for.
So why is Pele - not Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi - the Greatest Of All Time? The technical debate could go on for ever and, in reality, can never be settled one way or the other.
To compare footballers from different eras, you would need to have watched them all live.
There are not too many people around who are as familiar with Pele’s game as they are with, say, Maradona’s.
But what everyone does know is that Pele inspired Brazil to win a World Cup in 1958 and inspired Brazil to win a World Cup in 1970. He became a national hero like no other.
Pele was shorthand for footballing greatness. Who do you think you are? Pele?
It is easy to think the modern generation of players has the monopoly on precocity. That is not true.
Pele was 17 when he scored against Wales in a World Cup quarter-final, 17 when he scored a hat-trick in the semi-final and 17 when he scored twice in the 5-2 win over Sweden in the final.
Some great players got a lifetime without scoring six World Cup goals. Pele did it well before his 18th birthday.
And did it under the pressure that comes with Brazilian football. Maybe at such a young age, pressure - from a football-obsessed country of over 200 million people - does not register.
You can bet it did when Pele went back on a previous declaration and played in the 1970 World Cup. But no-one shouldered the hopes of the masses quite like Pele … and quite like that Brazil team in Mexico.
Find somewhere that is running the 4-1 win over Italy in the final in its entirety and tell me that Pele’s Brazil of 1970 was not the greatest international team of all time.
Felix, Carlos Alberto, Everaldo, Brito, Piazza, Clodoaldo, Gerson, Jairzinho, Rivelino, Tostao, Pele. And tell me Carlos Alberto’s goal was not the most glorious in the history of World Cup finals.
They were all great players in that team but they were all inspired by one man.
Pele was a three-time World Cup winner although his participation in 1962 was truncated by injury. In 1966, on these shores, he was, effectively, kicked out of the tournament.
But by then, he had already established himself as The Greatest, a national treasure who was pretty much forbidden to leave Brazil, hence his thousand-plus goal for Santos.
His game had no weaknesses. If you really had to put his qualities alongside those of the modern elite, he would probably be more Ronaldo than Messi.
But he was a pioneer, a trailblazer for not just Brazilian but South American footballers. A trailblazer for black footballers.
He became a lifelong symbol for how the sport should truly be played. He became a lifelong symbol for the beautiful game.
That is because Edson Arantes do Nascimento WAS the beautiful game. And no-one else will ever compare.
