Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known mononymously by his nickname Pelé, was a Brazilian professional footballer who played as a forward. Regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and labelled “the greatest” by FIFA, he was among the most successful and popular sports figures of the 20th century. In 1999, he was named Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee.
In 2000, Pelé was voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) and was one of the two joint winners of the FIFA Player of the Century. His 1,279 goals in 1,363 games, which includes friendlies, is recognised as a Guinness World Record. Pelé began playing for Santos at age 15 and the Brazil national team at 16. During his international career, he won three FIFA World Cups: 1958, 1962 and 1970, the only player to do so.
He was nicknamed O Rei (The King) following the 1958 tournament. Pelé is the joint-top goalscorer for Brazil with 77 goals in 92 games. At the club level, he was Santos’ all-time top goalscorer with 643 goals in 659 games. In a golden era for Santos, he led the club to the 1962 and 1963 Copa Libertadores, and to the 1962 and 1963 Intercontinental Cup.
Credited with connecting the phrase “The Beautiful Game” with football, Pelé’s “electrifying play and penchant for spectacular goals” made him a star around the world, and his teams toured internationally to take full advantage of his popularity. During his playing days, Pelé was for a period the best-paid athlete in the world. After retiring in 1977, Pelé was a worldwide ambassador for football and made many acting and commercial ventures. In 2010, he was named the honorary president of the New York Cosmos.
Averaging almost a goal per game throughout his career, Pelé was adept at striking the ball with either foot in addition to anticipating his opponents’ movements on the field. While predominantly a striker, he could also drop deep and take on a playmaking role, providing assists with his vision and passing ability, and he would also use his dribbling skills to go past opponents.
In Brazil, he was hailed as a national hero for his accomplishments in football and for his outspoken support of policies that improve the social conditions of the poor. His emergence at the 1958 World Cup, where he became a black global sporting star, was a source of inspiration. Throughout his career and in his retirement, Pelé received numerous individual and team awards for his performance in the field, his record-breaking achievements, and his legacy in the sport.
Some of the best quotes from Pelé are listed below.
- “A good player is not who only scores goals but someone who can cheer his team and when the team is not performing well, he can act as a leader.” – Pelé
- “A lot of people, when a guy scores a lot of goals, think, ‘He’s a great player’ because a goal is very important, but a great player is a player who can do everything on the field. He can do assists, encourage his colleagues, give them confidence to go forward. It is someone who, when a team does not do well, becomes one of the leaders.” – Pelé
- “A penalty is a cowardly way to score.” – Pelé
- “A team is not made up of isolated individuals… Football is a team game. No one plays alone. Success depends on your whole team being a single unit.” – Pelé
- “All my life I thank God. My family was very religious.” – Pelé
- “Always when I come to the field, I try to do my best for other people.” – Pelé
- “Another reason why I am always close to the people, because communication is very important. When I stopped to play soccer I continued to… work with UNICEF.” – Pelé
- “At 17, I already had responsibility because I took care of my family, but in the football I was young; I wasn’t experienced or the captain – I was just in the team.” – Pelé
- “Brazil eats, sleeps, and drinks football. It lives football!” – Pelé
- “Brazil’s always had great players, both at home and abroad, but we need to put all that talent together and mould a team out of it.” – Pelé
- “Considerable research on successful soccer players and their developmental history, affirms that a good percentage of them have spent time in isolation, working on soccer skills.” – Pelé
- “Edson is the person that supports Pele. Edson is the base. Pele just comes and adds the face.” – Pelé
- “Enthusiasm is everything. It must be taut and vibrating like a guitar string.” – Pelé
- “Every kid around the world who plays soccer wants to be Pele. I have a great responsibility to show them not just how to be like a soccer player, but how to be like a man.” – Pelé
- “Everybody knows my life. I won a lot of tournaments and scored more than 1,000 goals, won three World Cups but I could not play in Olympic Games.” – Pelé
- “Everything is practice.” – Pelé
- “Everything on earth is a game. A passing thing. We all end up dead. We all end up the same, don’t we?” – Pelé
- “Football is like a religion to me. I worship the ball, and I treat it like a god. Too many players think of a football as something to kick. They should be taught to caress it and to treat it like a precious gem.” – Pelé
- “Football is the best, is the biggest sport in the world.” – Pelé
- “For 20 years they have asked me the same question, who is the greatest? Pele or Maradona? I replay that all you have to do is look at the facts – how many goals did he score with his right foot or with his head?” – Pelé
- “Great teams are made up of a variety of players, each having their own strengths.” – Pelé
- “Great teams are not made up of many well-rounded players.” – Pelé
- “His left foot is fantastic. It’s like Mozart. God gave Freddy the gift to play soccer. If he is prepared mentally and physically, nobody will stop him.” – Pelé
- “How much soccer training is it needed to become a top player? It depends on the efficiency of your training routine. Setting long and short-term goals is a must. When planning out a soccer training regime, one must strive for a realistic and consistent program that will diminish specific weaknesses. Broad versatility of soccer skills is the Nirvana of every dedicated trainee.” – Pelé
- “How much soccer training is needed to become a top player? It depends on the efficiency of your training routine.” – Pelé
- “I always had a philosophy which I got from my father. He used to say, ‘Listen. God gave to you the gift to play football. This is your gift from God. If you take care of your health, if you are in good shape all the time, with your gift from God no one will stop you, but you must be prepared.’” – Pelé
- “I always think that I would have become an actor if I hadn’t been a soccer player.” – Pelé
- “I am constantly being asked about individuals. The only way to win is as a team. Football is not about one or two or three star players.” – Pelé
- “I don’t believe there is such a thing as a ‘born’ soccer player. Perhaps you are born with certain skills and talents.” – Pelé
- “I don’t think I’m a very good businessman. I act too much with my heart.” – Pelé
- “I have to trust something that gives me power; I have to believe in something, but in my career, I have a lot of moments I cannot explain with God.” – Pelé
- “I like Messi a lot, he’s a great player. Technically, we’re practically at the same level.” – Pelé
- “I played for Santos at 16, and we had an excellent team, so it helped a lot. And then I played for Brazil at the Maracana against Argentina. So I get more experience. This was one year before the World Cup, and it made a lot of difference.” – Pelé
- “I played futsal growing up in Baurd. In futsal, you need to think quick and play quick so it’s easier for you when you move to normal football.” – Pelé
- “I represent Brazil all over the world. Wherever I go I have to do my best, to not disappoint the Brazilian people. And that I’ve done.” – Pelé
- “I sometimes lie awake at night and wonder why I am still so popular and, to be honest, I don’t know.” – Pelé
- “I think the kids always look forward to being always the big stars. Not only football, any profession.” – Pelé
- “I treat everybody the same. You know I love to be with people: the youngsters.” – Pelé
- “I want to do my best to make the people happy. I play with my heart for the sport.” – Pelé
- “I was barely 14 years old. But let’s be fair, I wasn’t the only one who did it.” – Pelé
- “I was born to play football, just like Beethoven was born to write music and Michelangelo was born to paint.” – Pelé
- “I was really proud that I was named after Thomas Edison and wanted to be called Edson. I thought Pele sounded horrible. It was a rubbish name. Edson sounded so much more serious and important.” – Pelé
- “I’ve come to accept that the life of a frontrunner is a hard one, that he will suffer more injuries than most men, and that many of these injuries will not be accidental.” – Pelé
- “If I pass away one day, I am happy because I tried to do my best. My sport allowed me to do so much because it’s the biggest sport in the world.” – Pelé
- “If you don’t give education to people, it is easy to manipulate them.” – Pelé
- “If you ever want to be a decent player, you have to be able to use both feet without stopping to think about it.” – Pelé
- “In 1962, my injury wasn’t because of violence; I just kicked the ball, and it happened. And that was OK because Brazil won; I didn’t have any difficulty in accepting that. I still got a medal because I’d played two games.” – Pelé
- “Lionel Messi is a wonderful player. Very skillful. Highly intelligent. He is not good in the air.” – Pelé
- “Love is more important than what we can take… Please say with me three times – Love! Love! Love!” – Pelé
- “No doubt, I am earning more money with my endorsements than I ever earned playing soccer.” – Pelé
- “No individual can win a game by himself.” – Pelé
- “Of course, my father was a soccer player. He used to play very good. Then, when I was young, eight or nine years old, ten years old, I just want to be like my father.” – Pelé
- “Over the years I’ve learned to live with two persons in my heart. Edson has fun with his friends and family; the other is the football player Pele. I didn’t want the name. ‘Pele’ sounds like baby-talk in Portuguese.” – Pelé
- “Pele doesn’t die. Pele will never die. Pele is going to go on forever.” – Pelé
- “People always ask me: ‘When is the new Pele going to be born?’ Never. My father and mother have closed the factory.” – Pelé
- “Ronaldo has come through for the past two or three years and is the best in Europe. I think at the moment no doubt Ronaldo is the best player.” – Pelé
- “Sometimes I look for the complete player, not just the players who score but those who can pass.” – Pelé
- “Sport is something that is very inspirational for young people.” – Pelé
- “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” – Pelé
- “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” – Pelé
- “Success isn’t determined by how many times you win, but by how you play the week after you lose.” – Pelé
- “The ambition should always be to play an elegant game.” – Pelé
- “The bicycle kick is not easy to do. I scored 1,283 goals, and only two or three were bicycle kicks.” – Pelé
- “The first World Cup I remember was in 1950 when I was 9 or 10 years old. My father was a soccer player, and there was a big party, and when Brazil lost to Uruguay, I saw my father crying.” – Pelé
- “The head talks to the heart and the heart talks to the feet.” – Pelé
- “The level of football in England is the top. English football is the leader in the world.” – Pelé
- “The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.” – Pelé
- “The World Cup is a very complicated tournament – six games, seven if you make it to the final – and maybe if you lose one game you’re out, even if you’re the best.” – Pelé
- “The World Cup is a very important way to measure the good players, and the great ones. It is a test of a great player.” – Pelé
- “There is always someone out there getting better than you by training harder than you.” – Pelé
- “To be a striker, you need to be in good shape.” – Pelé
- “Too many players think of a football as something to kick. They should be taught to caress it and to treat it like a precious gem.” – Pelé
- “When football stars disappear, so do the teams, and that is a very curious phenomenon. It is like in the theatre, in a play, where there is a great star.” – Pelé
- “When I retired, at that time I had a lot of proposals to play in Europe, England, Italy, Spain, Mexico. But I said no, after 18 years I want to rest, because I want to retire.” – Pelé
- “When I was a footballer, I surrounded myself with footballers. We were all friends. But in Brasilia you don’t know who your friends are. It can be a dangerous place.” – Pelé
- “When I was minister of sport in Brazil, I tried to bring in a law that would make the chairmen of clubs reveal their accounts like other businesses. It was turned down, but I think it is an important story that will make a good film.” – Pelé
- “When I was playing, they said soccer was a man’s world and women should remain on the sidelines, all I can say is I’m glad I never had to go up against Mia Hamm.” – Pelé
- “When you are young, you do a lot of stupid things.” – Pelé
- “When you control the ball you control the score.” – Pelé
- “When you play against dirty players or very tough players, it’s easy to escape because you know what they’re going to do. But when the player is tough but intelligent, it’s much more difficult.” – Pelé
- “Wherever you go, there are three icons that everyone knows: Jesus Christ, Pele, and Coca-Cola.” – Pelé
- “Yes, I have a lot of business interests. But I don’t work for just anyone, and I choose the companies very carefully.” – Pelé
- “You must respect people and work hard to be in shape. And I used to train very hard. When the other players went to the beach after training, I was there kicking the ball.” – Pelé
