Pele: Mutiu Adepoju Rates Brazilian Icon As the Greatest Footballer

• Mutiu Adepoju has paid his tribute to late Brazilian football icon Pele claiming he was the greatest
• After long battle against cancer, the 82-year-old Brazilian passed away on Thursday night, 29 December
• Adepoju who played 48 games for the Super Eagles stated that Pele was a tactical genius during his days

Former Super Eagles star Mutiu Adepoju has described late Brazilian football legend Pele as the greatest footballer ever citing his skills, goals and speed as rationale.

Football fraternities in the world are still mourning the demise of Pele who passed away on Thursday night, 29 December, after serious battle against cancer.

Pele during his active playing days made many people in the world love football just because of his styles of playing the round leather game.

The former Santos striker is also the only player on earth to have won three World Cups in the history of the game.

Ranking the top 10 best Brazilian football strikers of all-time

Football

According to the statement Adepoju made on Twitter, the former Shooting Stars' man explained that Pele was a genius on the pitch.

Statement made by Adepoju

''Pele - goals, skills, speed, ball control, tactical genius, charisma, trophies, legacies. No dispute, he really was the Greatest.''

Pele's FIFA World Cup records

Earlier, Sports Brief had reported how Pele, considered by many to be the greatest player of all time to ever play football, passed away aged 82 on Thursday night in Sao Paulo, Brazil after a long battle with cancer.

The man who won football's most coveted trophy, the FIFA World Cup three times, including his first in 1958 as a teenager under the age of 18, set three records that year which remains till today.

Cristiano Ronaldo's transfer: Is CR7 leaving Manchester United and which clubs are likely to acquire him?

Football

He missed the opening two games of the tournament with a knee injury and made his debut in the third and played all through the tournament, setting lots of incredible records, some of which may be hard to break.

Four of the Santos legend's records at the 1958 World Cup still stands 64 years on, and have outlived him after he passed away on Thursday night and won't be broken soon, not in another four years.

Pele was at that time the youngest player to play in a World Cup when he made his debut against USSR, a record he lost to Northern Ireland's Norman Whiteside who played in the 1982 World Cup aged 17 years and 40 days, about 200 days less than Pele.