Superlatives from some of soccer’s greats and others about Pelé, who died Thursday in Brazil at age 82:
___
“To watch him play was to watch the delight of a child combined with the extraordinary grace of a man in full.” — Nelson Mandela.
___
“I told myself before the game, he’s made of skin and bones just like everyone else — but I was wrong.” — Italy's Tarcisio Burgnich, after playing against Pele in the 1970 World Cup Final.
___
“Pelé was one of the few who contradicted my theory: Instead of 15 minutes of fame, he will have 15 centuries.” — Andy Warhol.
___
“I sometimes feel as though football was invented for this magical player.” — Sir Bobby Charlton, retired England great who won 1966 World Cup and Ballon d’Or in same year.
___
“Pelé was the only footballer who surpassed the boundaries of logic.” — Johan Cruyff, the late Dutch star and standout manager who won the Ballon d’Or three times.
___
“He is the most complete player I ever saw.” — Retired German great Franz Beckenbauer.
___
“If you take the qualities of Cristiano Ronaldo and (Lionel) Messi, put them together, then you’d have a player to compare to Pelé!” — Retired Brazil forward Tostao.
___
“The best player ever? Pelé. (Lionel) Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are both great players with specific qualities, but Pelé was better.” — Alfredo Di Stefano, the late Argentine star for Real Madrid.
___
“His great secret was improvisation. Those things he did were in one moment. He had an extraordinary perception of the game.” — Brazil defender Carlos Alberto Torres.
___
“This debate about the player of the century is absurd. There’s only one possible answer: Pelé. He’s the greatest player of all time, and by some distance, I might add.” — Retired Brazil star Zico.
___
“The greatest player in history was Di Stefano. I refuse to classify Pelé as a player. He was above that.” — Hungary star Ferenc Puskas.
___
“We went up together to head a ball. I was taller, had a better impulse. When I came back down, I looked up in astonishment. Pelé was still there, in the air, heading that ball. It was like he could stay suspended for as long as he wanted to.” — Italy defender Giacinto Facchetti.
___
“When I saw Pelé play, it made me feel I should hang up my boots.” — Just Fontaine, the Morocco-born French star who scored 13 goals in six games in the 1958 World Cup.
___
“The moment the ball arrived at Pelé’s feet, football transformed into poetry.” — Italian poet Pier Paolo Pasolini.
___
“The difficulty, the extraordinary, is not to score 1,000 goals like Pelé — it’s to score one goal like Pelé.” — Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Brazilian poet.
___
“Pelé was the most complete player I’ve ever seen. Two good feet. Magic in the air. Quick. Powerful. Could beat people with skill. Could outrun people. Only 5-feet-8 inches tall, yet he seemed a giant of an athlete on the pitch. Perfect balance and impossible vision.” — Bobby Moore, captain of the 1966 World Cup champion team from England.
___
“I arrived hoping to stop a great man, but I went away convinced I had been undone by someone who was not born on the same planet as the rest of us.” — Benfica goalkeeper Costa Pereira after 5-2 loss to Santos.
___
“There’s Pelé the man, and then Pelé the player. And to play like Pelé is to play like God.” — Retired France star and three-time Ballon d’Or winner Michel Platini.
___
“Pelé is the greatest player in football history, and there will only be one Pelé in the world.” — Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal star forward.
