>

Sure it got more popular, but that's still awful compared to other global sports.
RIP to the king of the game. Legend. >

He's arguably one of the primary reasons why soccer became the most popular sport in the world. RIP >

Retired ~50 years ago and remained a household name. >

Seriously though! As someone who doesn't follow sports all that much, it wasn't until a few years ago that I realized Pelé was an older man and not some present day sports superstar given how common it was to hear his name mentioned whenever soccer/football came up. >

I am just now learning that Pele is not a 35 year old man.  I don't know shit about fuck when it comes to soccer, but I knew the name Pele. >

Having learned about him growing up but not watching soccer I thought he played with guys like Beckham. He's to soccer what Wilt and Babe Ruth are to basketball and baseball. >

I'm not a soccer fan, but I get the impression that Pelé is far more important to soccer than Wilt Chamberlain is to basketball or Babe Ruth is to baseball. I'm not sure American sports has an equivalent to Pelé. >

Maybe not in importance but in complete domination of their sport setting records that still have yet to be broken. >

I was just speaking in terms of their importance. We have had many great players in different sports but Pelé is like the Jesus Christ of soccer, no American athlete matches that. Closest one would probably be Michael Jordan, but I don't think even he is on the same level because his fame has waned a bit in the 20 years he has been retired whereas Pelé has been retired for 50 years and is just as famous as he ever was. >

Jordan might be the closest example, I don't think his fame has waned much at all, with the last dance pushing him back up as far as sports conversations go. and culturally, look at the feet of any teenager in any UK city today, they're wearing the man's shoes. Although I can't speak for anywhere else, I'm sure it's a similar story >

This is going to be weird to some, maybe... but what i remember him most for is the movie Victory with him, Stallone, Michael Caine and Max von Sydow. Mostly a very fictionalized story about something from World War II... but it was a cool little movie where the Allies beat the Nazis at soccer.
They had Pelé using his skills to basically defeat the Third Reich. Sure, not all that super accurate, but it's a fun movie to watch. He was able to act at least as well as Stallone too. And it was one one of the last films directed by John Huston too. >

Now, Max von Sydow is a name I don't see mentioned nearly enough.  
LEVEL FIVE!! >

Max von Sydow was in tons of great movies. Awakenings, Game of Thrones, one of the new Star Wars movies, The Exorcist, Never Say Never Again, Flash Gordon, Dune, The Seventh Seal, Pelle the Conqueror, etc, He was one of the best actors to ever walk the planet.
He should be mentioned in the same catagory as Laurence Olivier, Lee Strasberg and Marlon Brando. >

You don't even mention his most important role. The voice of Esbern in Skyrim! >

Ha I didn't know that, but now I can totally hear it. >

Also the voice over in the trailer. >

This man was a global icon in a world before social media, the internet, etc. Even those who didn't follow sports knew his name. 
He even was the cause of a cease fire during the Nigerian civil war so they could watch him play. 
Legend doesn't begin to describe him. >

I know next to nothing about Soccer and even I know about him >

Pele is one of those people whose name transcended the sport. You don't have to follow the sport to know who Pele, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky, Venus and Serena Williams, are. >

At one time the most famous individual human was Muhammad Ali. Pelé was on that level, it is true.
Couple of other names as well: Jackie Robinson and Walter Payton.
Edit: fixed misspelled name. >

I don’t think Payton is on the same level as the others >

I was trying to think of the NFL player who was most deserving of being listed there. Payton's charity work was a big part of his life. He died over 20 years ago of a very deadly form of cancer. He worked to make the lives of a lot of people better. And he was one of the best Running Backs to ever play in the NFL. I don't know if he was the best RB ever, but he's in that "top-5" discussion.
What NFL player would you think makes more sense to list here? Or is the problem that, in your view anyway, that no NFL player ever ranked similarly in comparison for this specific list with others like Pelé, Ali, Gretsky, Jordan, etc. >

Walter was an amazing player and a better man, but yeah I don’t think any NFL player really belongs with the others. The league and sport just doesn’t have the same kind of out reach. >

American football really only matters to people from the USA. I sometimes get the impression that Americans don't understand that. >

It certainly got more popular over the past decade or so in Germany and I think Central Europe in general.
The Super Bowl used to be an one-off on the public service channels in 2010. It was mostly not advertised, started at midnight and only a few people watched it.
Now the numbers have tripled to 2 million viewers and every week a few selected matches are shown as well. It's popular enough that you probably hear some friend or someone at work talk about the Super Bowl.
Given that it's popularity rose that recently, Tom Brady is by far the most known player of all time here.