All Whites great Wynton Rufer has remembered his close friend Pele after the Brazil icon lost his battle with colon cancer at the age of 82.
Widely regarded among the best to have ever played the game, Pele - full name Edson Arantes do Nascimento - is the only player to win the Football World Cup three times, as the star figure of the all-conquering Brazil side.
With Pele as their talisman, Brazil won the World Cup three times in four attempts from 1958 to 1970.
Only the Argentinian pair of Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi are considered to rival Pele for the tag of football's greatest of all time.
For New Zealand's greatest player Rufer, Pele was a personal friend after the pair shared multiple meetings through ambassadorial roles with FIFA, the game's governing body.
"Pele was such a humble man," Rufer told Newshub. "He's seriously one of the most humble, professional athletes I've ever met. Everyone else will tell you the same.
"He was just a beautiful person. I met Maradona on several occasions - different story again but I say it with a smile - and some of the other legends of the game. I wouldn't have such nice words to say about them.
"But the greatest of all time was such a humble human being."
Rufer, 60, has more than one story of meeting Pele but arguably the best comes after missing the chance to rub shoulders with his idol, coming at the 1982 Football World Cup in Spain.
"At the '82 World Cup with the All Whites, we were in the group with Brazil, Scotland and Russia [Soviet Union], the group of death," he tells.
"For us, it's the greatest story of all, we're going to play Brazil. The whole time, I'm thinking, 'Will we see Pele? Can we meet him?'
"I was more focussed on meeting Pele than playing the game.
"It was my worst game, our third game in the tournament, I got subbed - I was crap. Before the game, I'd been down on the field taking photos of the stadium in Sevilla, with tens of thousands of Brazil fans in all the yellow.
"I came back to the changing rooms, and coming out of our changing rooms is Pele with three bodyguards.
"He walks past, I'm in shock. I go into the changing rooms and everyone's got their shirts and signatures, talking about Pele.
"I was the only one who didn't meet him. I was completely devastated.
"That's probably the reason why I played so badly."
Sixteen years later, Rufer finally got the chance to meet Pele in the flesh - in an encounter that forever changed how the New Zealand icon acts to this day.
"I finally got to meet him in 1998, in October, at FIFA headquarters in Zurich. He comes around and hugs everyone.
"For all the people who've ever received a hug from me and you don't know why, because you don't know me and you're meeting me for the first time, that's because of Pele.
"That was the effect he had on me. He came to me [and] as he came I was waiting in line, it was alphabetical, he's coming one after the other, starting from A.
"It finally comes to me, Pele puts his arms around me and says, 'Nice to see you again.'
"I look at him, I'm in awe. 'I've never met you before,' [I said]. And then he puts his hands on my shoulders with a big smile and says, 'Well now we know each other.'
"And then just moved on. He was pure class, on and off the field."
Pele netted 77 goals for Brazil, a record he shares with current superstar Neymar. However, Pele's strikes came in only 92 appearances, while Neymar's have come in 124 matches.
At the club level, Pele scored more than 600 goals for Santos playing in Brazil, followed by a brief stint playing in the US with New York Cosmos.
