In conversation with a legendAn interview with PeléFor all Pelé’s achievements in football, whether it be for his beloved Santos, the New York Cosmos or, of course, for the Brazil national team, his career and iconic standing as the greatest of all time is down to one thing above all else – the World Cup.

He would appear in four, of course, with differing experiences, but by the time he hung up his international boots he had achieved a World Cup set of records that survive to this day. He is synonymous with the greatest football tournament in the world and is not just considered by many the best in the history of football, but without doubt the best in the history of the World Cup.

To travel to the 1958 World Cup in Sweden at the age of just 17 was a phenomenal feat. He had only made his international debut the year before, ten months after his professional club career had begun with lowly Santos. Outside Brazil he was unheard of. Inside Brazil people began to talk about the young boy’s talent, but he would be part of a scintillating squad that included Garrincha, Vava and Didi. Surely there was only so much a teenager could do in the company of such greats? By the end of the tournament Pelé had already established himself as one of the best players in the world, if not the greatest.

“When I was called into the 1958 World Cup squad I was excited and nervous because I’d never left Brazil,” Pelé recalled. “I remember Swedish kids touching my face because they’d never seen a black man before. I knew what the journalists were saying about me. They said I was too young, too inexperienced. Then I thought about what my father always used to say to me. ‘Don’t worry son, believe in yourself. On the pitch you’re all the same.’ That lifted me.”

He missed the first two group games through injury but came back for the final game – a 3-0 victory over Russia – where he supplied an assist. It had been a quiet start to the campaign for the boy, but he felt there was more to come and had made a promise to his father before he left South America for the Nordic shores of Sweden. “I remembered what happened in 1950 when Brazil hosted the World Cup but we lost to Uruguay in the final match,” he explained. “We were just kids and I remember being huddled around the radio. None of us could afford a television back then, of course. When Brazil lost there was silence in the streets. It was a tragedy. I remember telling my father before I left for Sweden: ‘Don’t worry, I’ll win the World Cup for you.’”

In the quarter-final he scored his first World Cup goal in a 1-0 win over Wales, but it was his hat-trick in the semi against France and then two subsequent goals against Sweden in the final – including his first which goes down as one of the great World Cup Final goals – that helped Brazil to a 5-2 victory over the hosts and transformed his life. “It was a different experience for me than anything that would follow,” he recalled. “It’s because I had no responsibility and therefore no nerves. I was so young. It was like a dream. It was amazing. In fact, it was like all my dreams had come true. It felt like I had achieved everything I had wanted to, and I was only 17. I couldn’t sleep afterwards. All I wanted to know was if my family back home had heard or seen my goals. I knew this was bigger than football. This was for Brazil. We had arrived as a country but when I came home I could not go out anywhere. I needed to adapt quickly because my life would never be the same again.”

Four years later Pelé would win his second World Cup winners medal at the ripe old age of 21 years old, although the 1962 tournament in Chile has left him with fewer memories after an injury in the second group game ruled him out of the rest of the tournament. “I didn’t know what it was,” he explained. “I was still very young and had never had an injury like that before. It was very hard to take when you get injured like that at the start of your World Cup journey. I knew I had to pull myself together and told my teammates: “Come on, we’re a team, we’re not just about one player.” I also told my replacement, Amarildo, that it was now up to him. He scored in the final and helped Brazil win again. I was so happy afterwards that I forgot about my injury that kept me out of the whole tournament, except for the first two games, and jumped in the shower still in my suit.”

In 1966 the World Cup would take place in England. As far as the Brazilian people were concerned, all Brazil needed to do was turn up and they would claim a third successive World Cup. “They thought we’d already won our third World Cup,” Pelé said. “We were even given banners from our fans when we got to our hotel that said: “Three times champions Brazil.” I didn’t like that. But I did have a dream of winning for a third time in England. Then, I believed, my job would be done.”

The dream became a nightmare as Brazil failed to emerge from a challenging group and Pelé, now the target for every defender in world football, hobbled out of the action in the second game, a loss against Hungary, was rushed back unfit for the final game against Portugal, only to be removed from the fray after another particularly shocking tackle on the world’s best footballer. Brazil would lose that game and the double-defending world champions were out of the 1966 tournament without even making the knockout stages.

A disillusioned, angry and upset Pelé had had enough. “It was a total, shameful failure,” he admitted. “In hindsight our preparations were not planned with the same humility as in 1958 and 1962. We were beginning to lose our title before we even set foot in England. I didn’t want to play in another World Cup after that. I decided I wasn’t lucky in this tournament. This was the second tournament in a row where I managed only to play in two games before being injured. It was bad enough in 1962
but at least Brazil still were world champions, I had played a part in it and we all came home with winners medals. But to be forced out of the World Cup in 1966 in such a manner was devastating. I’d had enough. I wanted to say goodbye to the World Cup. I was very depressed.”

He meant it too and stuck to his vow for the next three and a half years, until the 1970 World Cup in Mexico became close. As the tournament drew near the pressure mounted on Pelé to play, not least from the dictatorship that ruled the country and saw football as a manner to appease the people.

“There were people wanting me to come back,” he admitted. “I was torn. I didn’t want to play because I didn’t want to go through what happened in England in 1966 again. But I also had huge doubts. I wanted to be remembered and I knew I had not done much in the World Cup since 1958. I also knew this would be my last World Cup if I played. In the end I changed my mind and joined the World Cup squad. I did it for me.”

Even then he remained anxious. The coach, Joao Saldanha, had not been supportive of Pelé’s return and was refusing to play him. When he was subsequently sacked, two months before the tournament began, Pelé’s previous teammate from 1958 and 1962 – Mário Zagallo – took over the reins but voiced his concern to his old friend. “He brought me aside after training and told me he didn’t think I was myself. He told me: ‘You’re not getting stuck in.’ He was right. I was concerned for myself. But he told me he would play me in every game and then my confidence came back.

“We had some great players in the 1958 squad, of course, but I think the 1970 World Cup team was the best Brazil team I ever played in. We had three world-class players for every position, especially my own. I knew this would be my fourth and last World Cup. I didn’t even want to play in it not long before but now I was desperate to succeed.”

Incredibly there were many who questioned whether Pelé still had it in him to replicate his previous feats. There was a common view that he was a spent force. “Everyone in the press was saying that I wasn’t in good shape, and that I didn’t have it in me to come back. I felt under a lot of pressure. Being Pelé was difficult. I didn’t like it or want it, but I did want to take one final chance.”

After beating Czechoslovakia in their first group game the defending champions, England, were next. “We knew it would be very difficult against England. We studied how to play against their very strong defence and how to defend against their fine attacking players. Everyone thought that whoever won this game could go all the way. After we won I had never known a brotherhood in a Brazilian team like there was in this one.”

A final group win over Romania and a quarter-final victory over Peru resulted in an emotional semi-final clash against Uruguay, the country that inflicted such a painful defeat on Brazil back in the decisive match of the 1950 World Cup. There would be no repeat this time, even though the Uruguayans took the lead. Brazil stormed back with three goals in response. “The night before I prayed to God and asked him if tomorrow would go well,” Pelé admitted. “That morning we all told ourselves we had to win.” It was as if a ghost that had haunted them for twenty years had finally been laid to rest.

Brazil were now in their fourth World Cup final and a second for Pelé. They had the chance to become the first country to become world champions for a third time. Pelé had seen it all before, of course, but this did not stop the occasion getting to him as the team bus drew close to the Aztec Stadium, the venue for a game that has been etched in the annals of football history. “I looked out of the window and saw all the fans waving Brazil flags and shouting: ‘Brazil, Brazil, Pelé, Pelé.’ I burst into tears. I was the oldest player in the squad, and I didn’t want my teammates to see me crying. But it was very emotional and I think after everything that had happened to me over the past twelve years and three World Cups, this was an outpouring. I was asking God to help me one more time because I knew this would be the last game I ever played in the World Cup.”

Pelé would mark it with the opening goal of the game early in the first half, a towering and powerful header and, although Italy would equalise, three second half goals would confirm Brazil as triple champions of the world. Pelé, who had laid on the assist for Carlos Alberto’s memorable fourth goal – the embodiment of a team goal – had fulfilled his dreams at last.

“The 1970 World Cup was the best time of my life,” he concluded. “But it was more important for my country. It did more for Brazil than it did for football. The emotion I felt more than anything else at the end was not happiness or joy, but relief. I was relieved that my decision to come back had been the right one, that I had survived the whole tournament and that, at the end, we had come through. Now my job was complete. My World Cup journey was over and I was happy.”

Pelé would retire from all international football the following year, then from his beloved Santos in 1974 and finally, after his spell in the United States, from all professional football in 1977. His goalscoring records remain to this day but the feat he is most proud of is that no other footballer has ever won the World Cup three times. For this, more than anything else, Pelé will be remembered for as long as time exists.