Edson Arandes do Nascimento, Pelé, made football history by being the only one to win the World Cup three times. For this reason, 2004 was marked as part of the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the founding of FIFA ‘King’ He was selected to create a list of the 100 greatest players in history, which would later be expanded to 125 footballers. In this relationship, the Canarinha idol included himself, but also placed a Peruvian.
Although he avoided assigning positions of merit to the members of this relationship, preferring to do so in alphabetical order so as not to generate controversy, the three-time world champion could not escape controversy. The main objection to his list was that some countries had a significant number of representatives, while others had only one and some were not included at all.
In the case of Peru, the chosen one was Teófilo Cubillas, who had been Pelé’s rival at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico and who was declared “his successor” by the former striker himself. The ‘Nene’ managed to sneak into the list as one of the few Latin Americans (excluding Argentina) to impress the Brazilian enough to be considered.
Teófilo Cubillas stated that it was “an honor” to play with Pelé at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. Photo: masks
List of the best players according to Pelé
This is how the “FIFA 100” list came about, in which 123 male players and two women appear. In addition to Argentina and Brazil, only Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay were represented from South America.
- Germany: Michael Ballack, Franz Beckenbauer, Paul Breitner, Oliver Kahn, Jurgen Klinsmann, Sepp Maier, Lothar Matthaus, Gerd Muller, Karl Heinz Rummenigge, Uwe Seeler
- Argentina: Gabriel Batistuta, Hernan Crespo, Mario Kempes, Diego Maradona, Daniel Passarella, Javier Saviola, Omar Sivori, Alfredo Di Stefano, Juan Sebastian Veron, Javier Zanetti
- Belgium: Jan Ceulemans, Franky Van der Elst, Jean-Marie Pfaff
- Brazil: Carlos Alberto, Cafú, Roberto Carlos, Falcao, Junior, Pelé, Rivaldo, Rivelino, Romario, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Djalma Santos, Nilton Santos, Socrates, Zico
- Bulgaria: Hristo Stoichkov
- Cameroon: Roger Milla
- Colombia: Carlos Valderrama
- South Korea: Hong Myung-bo
- Croatia: Before Suker
- Chile: Elias Figueroa, Ivan Zamorano
- Denmark: Brian Laudrup, Michael Laudrup, Peter Schmeichel
- Exit: Kenny Dalglish
- Spain: Emilio Butragueño, Luis Enrique, Raul
- United States: Michelle Akers, Mia Hamm
- France: Eric Cantona, Marcel Desailly, Didier Deschamps, Juste Fontaine, Thierry Henry, Raymond Kopa, Jean Pierre Papin, Robert Pires, Michel Platini, Lilian Thuram, Marius Tresor, David Trezeguet, Patrick Vieira, Zinedine Zidane
- Ghana: Abedi Pelé
- Hungary: Ferenc Puskas
- English: Gordon Banks, David Beckham, Bobby Charlton, Kevin Keegan, Gary Lineker, Michael Owen, Alan Shearer
- Ireland: Roy Keane
- Northern Ireland: George Best
- Italy: Roberto Baggio, Franco Baresi, Giuseppe Bergomi, Giampiero Boniperti, Gianluca Buffon, Giancinto Facchetti, Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Del Piero, Alessandro Nesta, Gianni Rivera, Paolo Rossi, Francesco Totti, Christian Vieri, Dino Zoff
- Japan: Hidetoshi Nakata
- Liberia: George Weah
- Mexico: Hugo Sanchez
- Nigeria: Jay Jay Okocha
- Países Bajos: Marco van Basten, Denis Bergkamp, Johann Cruyff, Edgar Davids, Ruud Gullit, Willy van de Kerkhof, Rene van de Kerkhof, Patrick Kluivert, Johann Neeskens, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Rob Rensenbrink, Frank Rijkaard, Clarence sea village
- Paradise: Julius Caesar Rosemary
- Peru: Teofilo Cubillas
- Polonia: Zbigniew Boniek
- Portugal: Manuel Rui Costa, Eusebio, Luis Figo
- Czech Republic: Josef Masopust, Pavel Nedved
- Romania: Gheorghe Hagi
- Russia: Rinat Dasaev
- Senegal: El Hadji Diouf
- Turkey: Emre, Recber Rustu
- Ukraine: Andrei Shevchenko
- Uruguay: Enzo Francescoli.