More than a week after the fact, the news comes out that Pele -- voted the athlete of the century by the world's national Olympic committees and declared a national treasure by the government of Brazil -- was the victim of an armed robbery in his home country. Pele, who was the passenger in a car, was reportedly riding to a seaside home near the city of Santos when his car was surrounded by about 10 men. Pele lost a gold necklace, a watch and cell phone, according to some reports.

So did the robbers not know it was Pele or did they just not care? According to the little  information available, in some accounts of the crime, Pele rolled down the window and told the robbers who he was but they took the items anyway. Other reports say that the driver of the vehicle had some of his items returned when it registered that it was indeed Pele in the car. The robbery occurred on a stretch of road where bandits have been known to set up roadblocks to ambush motorists.