Professional soccer player, Pelé -- did more for the sport's global appeal than anyone in history. He did so much that the International Olympic Committee named him the athlete of the century. In 1975, he came out of retirement in Brazil, put on his unassuming white mesh jersey with the number ten on it and went to play with the New York Cosmos, lifting the sport from a sleepy backwater in the U.S. to having unprecedented interest today.

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