Pelé: Never Forget to Play for the Love of the Game

Pelé, arguably the world’s greatest ever soccer player, admitted to teasing some current players about their salaries and playing for the love of the game during a press conference in Hong Kong this week.

The Brazilian World Cup champion and all-time leading scorer for Brazil is the Honorary President of a revived New York Cosmos, who are aiming to field a team in Major League Soccer (MLS) in the US. He discussed his mission and purpose behind the current promotional tour through Asia. Meanwhile, he also answered questions about the dangers of money, technology and some rules that he found unfair.

“I have been here [Hong Kong] 35 years ago with Santos [Santos Futebol Clube in Brazil]. Then I came here with the New York Cosmos,” said a still fit 70-year-old Pelé.

“Since the first time I was here until now, football has improved a lot. There are many players here today from Europe and Latin America. That’s good you know? The level is fantastic. It’s very hard to play here and play against a team from Asian team and beat them easily. All the games are very even. That proves they grow a lot.”

Often credited with raising the profile of soccer in the US, Pelé came out of semi-retirement in 1975 to play for the iconic New York Cosmos soccer club.

“I was not supposed to come back, but to complete my mission to make soccer bigger in the United States with the New York Cosmos,” said Pelé. “Then Paul [Kemsley, President of Cosmos] convinced me to come back again. That’s the reason I am here again.

“In 1975 in the United States, I had lots of requests to come and make soccer bigger in US. Today I’m very proud to say that of [the] sports, soccer in the United States is one of the best sports.

“Also, my mission is to take the kids from the street, take the kids from the drugs I think through football, the biggest sport in the world, I can do this.

Seated beside Pelé, Paul Kemsley expanded on the purpose for touring in Asia.

“We are in Asia principally as part of the rebuilding of the process to bring the Cosmos back to Asia. The last time we were here was 25 years ago. We feel it’s very important to bring Cosmos to Asia and we will be visiting all parts of it. This will be over the next two years of the building process. We will be traveling with our all-star team prior to competing in the MLS that we hope will be in 2014. The other reason we are here is obviously to make friends with some of our contemporaries. Also to encourage some global partnerships with Asia in general. So we see Hong Kong as a very important target for us and the gateway to China.”

Pelé discussed the controversial introduction of technology, explaining that as a committee member with the sport’s world governing body FIFA, it is frequently a topic.

“There is a lot of discussion about using new technology or not in football. We need a little bit more time because football is not like Formula 1 or tennis. Football is very quick movement and doesn’t stop, and it’s a little difficult to use the new technology.