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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
No doubt, I am earning more money with my endorsements than I ever earned playing soccer.
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.
The level of football in England is the top. English football is the leader in the world.
Over the years I've learnt to live with two persons in my heart. One is Edson, who 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.
To be a striker you need to be in good shape.
Enthusiasm is everything. It must be taut and vibrating like a guitar string.
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.
Lionel Messi is a wonderful player. Very skillful. Highly intelligent. He is not good in the air.
If you don't give education to people, it is easy to manipulate them.
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.
Pele doesn't die. Pele will never die. Pele is going to go on for ever.
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.
I always think that I would have become an actor if I hadn't been a soccer player.
All my life I thank God. My family was very religious.
I sometimes lie awake at night and wonder why I am still so popular and, to be honest, I don't know.
