Pele Wants to Come Out of Retirement to Win Olympic Gold for Brazil

Brazilian legend Pele, who was never eligible for the football event of the Olympic games during his playing career, has joked he may opt to come out of retirement as the hosts look to win on home soil.


Pele never got the opportunity to play at an Olympic Games and a gold medal is one honour missing from his trophy cabinet.

As a professional footballer from such a young age, the greatest player of them all was never eligible for selection for Brazil's Olympic team.

The three-time World Cup winner signed his first professional contract with Santos aged only 15 and made his debut for the Selecao aged 16 against Argentina in the Maracana and was part of the Brazil team which claimed the World Cup in Sweden in 1958.

"When I started to play football at 16 years old, I was in the national team," Pele told Goal. "I was selected to play in Sweden and Brazil won. At that time, professional players were not allowed to play in the Olympics."

That gold medal is still lacking on the Brazil honours list despite five runners-up places at the Olympics heading into this year's tournament, slated to kick off on August 4. Pele is tempted to come back and add the one that got away to his medal collection. 

"The only title Brazil doesn't have is the Olympic tournament champion. The only tournament I never played because I was professional was the Olympics. Now, we're going have the Olympics in Brazil," he said.

"I think I'm going to prepare to play this Olympics. Maybe I'll win this championship for Brazil. In five months, I have to be prepared for that!"