'Pele is eternal': Football stars Neymar, Ronaldo, Messi lead tributes to Brazil legend

Neymar led the tributes to Pele after the Brazil legend's death on Thursday as the Paris Saint Germain star said his iconic compatriot had "transformed football into an art".

Pele passed away aged 82 after suffering "multiple organ failure" following a long battle with cancer and the football world was quick to salute arguably the sport's greatest ever player.

Nicknamed "O Rei" (The King), Pele scored more than 1,000 goals before retiring in 1977.

Brazil forward Neymar hailed Pele, a three-time World Cup winner, in a social media post alongside two pictures of himself with the legend.

"Before Pele, '10' was just a number," the heir to Pele's famed shirt number wrote on Instagram.

"But that beautiful sentence is incomplete. I would say that before Pele, football was just a sport.

"He transformed football into an art, into entertainment... Football and Brazil gained status thanks to the King. He has gone, but his magic will remain. Pele is ETERNAL!"

Like Pele, France striker Kylian Mbappe shot to stardom after winning the World Cup at a young age.

Mbappe helped France lift the World Cup in 2018 and also scored a hat trick in Les Bleus' dramatic penalty shoot-out defeat against Argentina in the tournament's 2022 final earlier this month.

"The king of football has left us but his legacy will never be forgotten. RIP KING," PSG forward Mbappe tweeted.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal's all-time top scorer, paid tribute to "the eternal King Pele" on Instagram.

"A mere 'goodbye' will never be enough to express the pain that the entire football world is currently embracing," he wrote. "The love you always showed me was reciprocated in every moment we shared even from a distance."

Argentinian star Lionel Messi shared heartwarming photos of him and Pele on Instagram, with a caption "Descansa en paz, (Rest in peace) @pele."

Here's one of the photos he posted: