'The king of football' - Liam Brady's memories of Pele

For Republic of Ireland great Liam Brady, three-time World Cup winner Pele stands at the very top of the pantheon of football's greats.

The Brazil legend died aged 82 on Thursday, leading to an outpouring of tributes from across the sporting spectrum and beyond.

Brady joined RTÉ's Morning Ireland to reflect on Pele's legacy and share his first-hand memories of meeting a player regarded as football's first global superstar.

"He was the best player in my opinion. It's a generational thing I think when you're judging players," he said.

We need your consent to load this comcast-player contentWe use comcast-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

"In 1970 he was absolutely brilliant in the World Cup in Mexico and I think he stamped his mark then on being the greatest player ever to play."

Over subsequent generations, Pele had been joined by Argentinian duo Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi in the conversation about the sport's best ever and while Brady said it's a debate that may prove inconclusive, Pele's attributes truly marked him out.

"I was watching clips of him and the Netflix series just recently a few weeks ago and not only could he score incredible goals - he could score any kind of goal - but he could dribble, he could head the ball, he could shoot from distance," he said.

"But he was also very unselfish as well. If he had players in a better position than himself he would play them in.

"He was just out of this world and I suppose Maradona followed after him, another generation, and then we've had Messi win the World Cup. So it's a difficult argument about who was the greatest