Sports have been always here, even when they didn’t have an official name. Along with history, we have witnessed great feats by several athletes around the world, and right now almost every country has a great story to tell when we talk about the wonderful sports. There are some countries with a bigger culture towards sports, but there are some others with modest histories. Fortunately for Brazil, they are part of the first group, having some of the greatest athletes in history.

This article is about celebrating those sportsmen who put Brazil on top of the world. Although they have had a great quantity of talented and successful athletes, here we are going to pick the top three sports figures in Brazilian history. 

Brazil is one of those countries with great sports culture, and even though they see football almost as a religion, there also are more disciplines with a large number of fans and spectacular exponents. During recent years, we have witnessed great performances by these athletes, as Brazil has delivered a big amount of them, but today, we’re going to pick the top three figures in Brazilian sports. 

Edson Arantes Do Nascimento “Pele”. It is hard to find a single person who hasn’t heard about Pele in his entire life. The three-time world champion is considered by many people across the globe as the best football player in history. Pele made an impact as soon as he debuted with his club, Santos, where he won plenty of trophies throughout his career with his club.

Talking about Pele is always hard because you never know what to say about his career and achievements. Pele put some of the greatest numbers in football history, records that seem unbreakable at this very moment where we have marvelous players and a very frenetic pace at the time of playing, but there is no doubt that Pele was ahead of his time, and even ours.

O Rey (the King) is not only one of the best football players in history but one of the best athletes that ever existed, being compared with great stars such as Michael Jordan or Mohammed Ali. Pele is a big responsibility of football’s fame around the world right now. If you ask somebody to tell you the biggest figure in Brazilian sports, no one will consider other than Pele. 

Ayrton Senna da Silva. Ayrton can be the only sportsman who is able to be compared to Pele –not because of his titles, but the way he changed his sports, as the former F1 pilot did a lot of great things in a short period. Just like O Rey, Senna was ahead of his time, showing all the best of his skills behind the wheel since the first time he got into a single-seat.

Right now he is considered if not the best, one of the best pilots that Formula 1 has ever seen. Ayrton has been the inspiration for many people that landed him in the maximum category of motor racing. Sadly, Senna passed away when he was still young and had much more things to deliver, but nobody doubts about his quality as a driver and the impact he made –even after his decease- during his not-so-long, but successful stay at Formula 1.

People like Rubens Barrichello or Felippe Massa are the prime example of the meaning of Senna to Brazilian children who dream of making it to the big leagues of motor racing.

Gustavo Kuerten. And talking about people with a great legacy, we can find Gustavo Kuerten, one of the most important sportsmen in Latin America, as the Brazilian made himself an extreme known famous name in world tennis. “Guga” surprised everyone 20 years ago, when he won the Roland Garros against all odds, and after that, he became a recurrent face in the most important courts around the world.

Kuerten was, at some point in his career, the world No. 1 tennis player, is the second Latin-American that reached the top spot of ATP leader board. Kuerten won Roland Garros three times in his career due to his great talent on clay. Kuerten has inspired many players in these latitudes and is considered one of the best three Latin-American tennis players in history.