Pele walks into storm over histop 100 choices

PELE may be the world’s favourite footballer but he walked into a storm of controversy yesterday over his choice of the greatest living players.

The Brazilian legend had been given the task by FIFA of picking 100 for a book of photographs as part of their centenary celebrations, but only managed to whittle the number down to 125, of whom 50 are current players.

But it is the omissions which have proved controversial, notably Jairzinho and Gerson from the 1970 World Cup-winning Brazil side and Geoff Hurst, the only man to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final.