When I first started watching football in the early 90s, I learned his name before I knew the name of any active non-Korean footballer. Nobody I knew had ever seen him play, but nobody ever doubted that he was the best ever. When I was playing PES all day in high school, I remember him being on the “Classic Brazil” team and being so comically overpowered even relative to the best of that era (Ronaldo/Ronaldinho etc.), but we were all okay with it because… well, he’s Pele. Of course he is. To this day, young Korean men who dominate their Sunday leagues still call themselves the “neighborhood Pele.” I’m sure that’s the case in many other countries as well.
It is the lot of all athletes to have their legacies diminished as the generations pass. It’s simply absurd that Pele’s semi-mythical status as the greatest of all time has largely persisted in the popular conscience a half Century after his prime, when the vast majority of humanity has never even seen him play. Michael Jordan is probably the only athlete who can even come close in terms of global cultural influence, but he is of a much more recent vintage. Who knows how much we’ll be talking about MJ in 2050.
An objectively better footballer will exist some day, (maybe he already does), but it’s hard to imagine anyone ever having a larger legacy.