I’ve always seen football as a game. You lose or win.
For me dialogue is as essential in football as in life. I like to talk to my players and I never impose anything, I always give them the chance to make their own choices.
If you want to try new challenges you have to adapt.
I’ve learned that showing your emotions can work against you and that you need to have a business-like attitude to observe things with a cool head.
I’ve been through everything in soccer.
I liked it when people relied on me… because then I knew I had something different to offer.
Rivaldo was fundamental for me accepting the challenge in Bunyodkor.
It is always good to keep learning. Every day things change and we should recycle ourselves every day.
My philosophy is always to play forward because goal is the reason of football.
I remember Arsene Wenger very well from our time in Japan. I like the way his teams play, with an offensive mentality – it is a philosophy I share. I think he gets the best out of the players he has, and this is the key to his success.
I would like to work in England. I find that place very interesting.
I want my players to go win and don’t play bad football.
A lot of people talk about what the 1982 team did on the pitch but that side was so dear to Brazilian fans also because it featured players that supporters would see in flesh and bone on a regular basis, either at games or even on the streets. Now they basically only see the Selecao on the TV.
You can’t win the World Cup without playing the big boys.
Brazilian boys as young as 14 and 15 are now based in Europe. They spend their best years in Europe and come back to Brazil when they are past their prime. This has destroyed local clubs and championships.
I have always said that to manage Brazil I would have to be managing in Brazil first.
In my career I always tried to improve to become one of the great players, because I felt I had received a gift from God and I had to make good use of it, to become worthy of having received this talent.
I will never do as a coach the things I hated people doing to me when I was a player.
Others are others, Pele is Pele, he is totally different.
I traveled to many countries when I played. But wherever I went, it was a journey between an airport, a hotel, a stadium and a railway station or a bus terminal and I didn’t have a chance to experience these places properly.
I was born close to soccer, and I’ve been living and working in soccer since I was small.
I don’t believe that politics has to be part of the sporting world.
Everything you can imagine from a player, Pele has done it.
Being a soccer coach is just like being a general who has the responsibility of guiding his troops into battle. If a coach acts too emotionally on the bench, his players cannot focus on their game on the field.
My philosophy is always to play for a win.
I believe that soccer can be an example of understanding and peace between countries and between peoples.
When you hear cheers at the moment you need a bit of a push, players can react to that and perform at their best.
Pele has all the qualities and characteristic that a football player has to have.
When I can, I always like coming to Italy to have some nice wine.
I prefer to win a game and lose other 2 rather than draw 3 games. Both cases you get 3 points.
I always play players who are fit – even if it means playing out of position.
I am not afraid to say what I feel.
It’s so important to be chosen for the national team. For the Copa America, for the World Cup, or just friendly matches, it’s such an honour to reach that stage and be chosen for the team. People expect players to wear Brazil’s shirt, win the title with pride, and keep winning. You have to have the mental strength to get over this pressure.
I might have made mistakes but I have always been honest.
I am not White Pele. I am simply Zico.
I don’t know why everyone refers to me as White Pele. I don’t like it.
I am not a magician of football.
I am a Brazilian and only support our team.
It’s hard for me to get to grips with how much players have changed since I retired. There are too many annoying habits; the kids are getting rich earlier and earlier, which brings a weird sense of entitlement.
When I was a kid, my big hero was the number 10 of Flamengo and not the number 10 of Santos. His name was Dida. We didn’t have much knowledge about the championship in Sao Paolo or in the south of Brazil. We just knew about the championship in Rio because I am from there. But Pele played for the national team and was a hero.
I will never give up on football that is played well.
Sometimes I make mistakes in my lineup. I don’t make any mistakes to harm someone.
In football, everything is possible.
Sometimes a team plays very well but doesn’t manage to score, while another team comes and scores. But then, that’s how football is.
My grandfather is a musician, my son is a musician and a singer. My mother played the piano too.
Legacy is an issue, in my opinion. People in the ISL seemed very much more worried about winning, than in creating a legacy.
Honestly speaking, I was not really interested in a managerial job when my playing career ended.
I respect the rules of the game.
With respect to Qatar as a country that wants to grow, you can’t have a World Cup in a country that doesn’t have football.
Neymar and Balotelli have the same problem. They spend too much time on their activities off the pitch.
I think the difference with Japan was that they didn’t bring in too many foreign players. In my opinion at the ISL it’s not too good to have too many foreigners playing. The minimum of five Indian players is too less in my opinion. Since it’s the ISL, we have to encourage more Indian football.
I don’t believe in luck.
Football always has pressure.
When I went to Japan, I was with Kashima Antlers. Very good results were produced with that team as I aimed to develop Japanese football.
Everything Maradona did, he did with a guy hanging on his neck during 90 minutes.
Maradona, if the ball came from his right, he would turn and would use his left foot, because he did not use his right. But he did use his right hand.
You need to always try to find new challenges.
When Brazil take part in any competition they must always play to win.
In Japan, when I went there, there was no professionalism at all. But the biggest advantage was that everyone was united and wanted to progress from amateur football to professional.
Football is a collective sport and many times it doesn’t depend on you playing well. It depends if the team is playing well.
My only dream was to wear the number ten shirt of Flamengo. Since then I have just taken things as they have come to me.
Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi never ever stop playing for the team. If I were young today, they are players on which I would mirror myself. Players of this level, play for the team. Players that are the best because they prepared themselves to bet You don’t see these players going out, on social media, skipping training to be in parties.
Sometimes you decide games, but you can’t decide a competition. So, Messi’s merit is not undone because he hasn’t won a World Cup.
Tactically, technically, physically, mentally he was the best. A lot of things that I learnt was from Pele’s sticker albums: how to head, how to shoot the ball. It was like a step-by-step guide. I learnt from Pele as a kid.
My father taught me to love Flamengo, which has always been my second home.
Football never surpises me.
The ISL brought together many football cultures such as Italians, Dutch, French, English and Spanish. There were no Brazilians! I brought something from Brazil, a team of professionals that changed something.
I wish I could help in a more substantial way, the football in India in a more global, national way.
Considering Messi’s quality and everything he represents, I don’t think I’ve seen him playing with a guy following him around the pitch the entire time with the sole purpose of not letting him play.
Ozil is a great player. He’s the brain of the German national team.
Difficulty is when you go to a place where the people don’t like you, they put a burden on you like what happened to me in Olympiakos.
During practice sessions I try and bring every inch of my experience to show the players what to expect, what can happen, what to avoid so that the team can focus on what they have learnt during training sessions.
Every great player is more outstanding in the victory, but has more pressure in defeats.
Maradona is among the best five players I’ve ever seen: Garrincha, Pele, Diego, Cruijff and Beckenbauer.
When God built Pele, he put everything that a player needs in him. He knew how to shoot, how to dribble, how to head, be physical. He had everything that a football player needs to have. It’s difficult for someone to achieve what he has in football.
In life we always have to learn something, I learn everything daily.
I don’t think Pele was the ultimate hero for our generation, he is the ultimate hero of every generation of Brazilians.
Everyone has the right to make mistakes.
An athlete needs to maintain a proper diet.
Losing a game at home is never good.
Profit and fame will not develop Indian football. Professionals, technique development, legacy specialists, and experts in football business, will develop India as football country.
I want to win all the time; even in a dice game I want to win.
Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are two players that, the way I see it, can have a spot amongst the best of all time.
In my days, players were only thinking about publicity during holiday and on rest days.
It’s bad when there are internal problems at the club – when people have doubts about you internally.
I hope that all the Indian football players who will be with me under my coaching will show their talent and come out with great success.
In Japan, football has grown but it doesn’t mean that baseball has regressed. Baseball also has grown with football.
For me, the 1982 Brazil squad was the best, although we could not win the World Cup.
I remember winning the Asian Cup in 2004 in China, coming through so much adversity including a final against the hosts. We won 3-1 and it was a wonderful competition, which we won by playing great football.
A great player can win, but cannot claim titles alone. You need to have a great team who are close and able to support you.
Brazilian football has always been very much admired in Japan and, of course, after my participation and so many other Brazilians, it was like they created a new style of play in homage to Brazilian football.
There is nothing wrong in losing with dignity, it is a part of the game.
Football is a collective game, not an individual game.
I am thankful to Fenerbahce for the opportunity that they gave me and I believe that I repaid their faith with good work on the pitch.
I’ve always done everything with love and dedication, thinking of the best for the club and the fans.
The history of Brazil goes from Pele to Garrincha, Didi, Tostao, Gerson, then to all of us who followed them.
In Brazil, U.S., Japan and some other countries, there are many sports being played and I hope that will be the case in India as well. Sports is good for the country.
Arsene Wenger’s mentality has been to bring together footballers who bring happiness in our sport, the type of players I like to watch. I’ve followed him since he was in Japan, and he always was a guardian of the art of football – football with happiness and football played well.
Maradona has done a lot for his clubs, as Messi does, and for the Argentina national team.
