Pele turned down the chance to play alongside George Best and Sir Bobby Charlton at Manchester United to remain at his beloved Santos in 1968.
In the late 60s, Pele already had two World Cups to his name and was widely regarded as the finest player on the planet.
In the same year that they won their first European Cup, beating Benfica 4-1 in the final, United made an audacious bid to bring Pele to Old Trafford, in a move that would have seen them possess one of the most iconic frontlines in history, with Best, Charlton and Denis Law already in the team.
However, Pele decided against moving to the English giants or any other major European club as he still believed Santos had the best team at the time.
Explaining his thinking behind never moving to Europe during his playing career, Pele said in 2015: 'I was invited to come to Europe many times, to come to Real Madrid, Milan, Manchester United but I was OK.
'Santos was the best team at that time. But today it's different. Because in my time we didn’t have an agent.
'These days it is not the player, it is the agent who decides where they go to play.'
Pele was very much his own man, and stayed loyal to Santos, representing the club for 18 years.
He scored over 600 goals for his boyhood team, and was on their books for each of his three World Cup wins with Brazil.
He did not finish his career as a one-club man as he moved to New York Cosmos in 1975 and spent two years in the US before calling time on his playing days.
Yet it is his time at Santos, as well as his heroics with Brazil, that will be remembered as fans mourn his passing at the age of 82.