RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Aldyr Schlee, the man responsible for designing Brazil's iconic yellow, green, blue and white football kit, has died aged 83.

Schlee passed away at the Beneficiencia Portuguesa hospital in the southern Brazilian city of Pelotas late on Thursday after a long battle with skin cancer.

In 1953, Schlee won a competition promoted by Rio de Janeiro newspaper Correio da Manha to choose the colours and design of Brazil's national team kit.

Three years earlier, Brazil had used an all-white strip in their infamous Maracanazo World Cup loss to Uruguay, a result that prompted the country's top football officials to call for a change of uniform.

The winner's prize was a cheque for the equivalent of 20,000 reais (around six thousand U.S. dollars) and an internship at the Correio da Manha.

Brazil's kit is now among the most recognizable in international sport and has been used in each of the country's five World Cup triumphs: in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002.

In later years, Schlee said he had tired of talking about his design.

"It has all come a bit late," he said during the 2014 World Cup. "They are taking notice of me for something I did 60 years ago. After this World Cup I'm never going to talk about it again."