Before Pele, 10 was just a number, says Neymar of the icon

Neymar Instagrammed this picture with Pele on Friday

Neymar led football's emotional tributes to Pele after the Brazil legend's death on Thursday as the Paris Saint Germain star said his iconic compatriot had transformed the sport "into an art."

Pele passed away aged 82 after suffering "multiple organ failure" following a long battle with cancer and football's current and former stars were quick to salute arguably the sport's greatest ever player.

Nicknamed O Rei (The King), Pele scored more than 1,000 goals before retiring in 1977. Brazil forward Neymar hailed Pele, the only man to win three World Cups, in a social media post alongside two pictures of himself with the legend. "Before Pele, 10 was just a number," the heir to Pele's famed shirt number wrote on
Instagram.

"But that beautiful sentence is incomplete. I would say that before Pele, football was just a sport. He transformed football into an art, into entertainment...Football and Brazil gained status thanks to the King. He has gone, but his magic will remain. Pele is ETERNAL!"

Like Pele, France striker Kylian Mbappe shot to stardom after winning the World Cup at a young age in 2018. "The king of football has left us but his legacy will never be forgotten. RIP KING," tweeted PSG forward Mbappe, who scored a hat-trick in France's defeat against Argentina in the World Cup final earlier this month.

Pele also won the World Cup in 1962 and 1970, with Argentina and PSG forward Lionel Messi one of the few players regarded as close to his equal. Messi posted a Instagram photo of himself with the Brazilian alongside the message: "Rest in peace, Pele."

Cristiano Ronaldo, who showed a photo of Pele giving the Portugal striker an award, praised him as an "inspiration to millions, a reference from yesterday, today, forever". "The affection he always showed for me was reciprocal in every moment we shared, even from a distance," Ronaldo wrote on Instagram.

"He will never be forgotten and his memory will live on forever in each of us football lovers. Rest in peace, King Pele." Manchester City's record-setting striker Erling Haaland joined the tributes, saying: "Anything you see any player doing, Pele did it first. RIP."

Also Read: What it is like to live with Pele's name Nascimento in India

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