Pelé: “This Barça is like my Santos”

Pelé, the Brazilian living legend, praises Barça’s play style and places the Catalan Club alongside the best teams in the history of the sport.

Edson Arantes de Nascimento ‘Pelé’ talked about Guardiola’s Barça in an interview with FIFA. The Brazilian places the Catalan side amongst the best teams in the history of the sport: “I’ve been watching this Barça side a lot lately and they’re like Santos were in my heyday, or the great Benfica, Ajax, AC Milan and Real Madrid sides. They all set the standard in their day.”

O Rei Pelé is clear: “the key to their success was the fact they had settled line-ups over a long period of time. Don’t forget that Barça is the core of the Spanish team. There’s a connection there, just as there was between Ajax and the Dutch national team all those years ago and between Santos and Brazil.”

Just in case there were any doubts about Pelé’s preferred style of play, the Brazil legend said: “this is the football people want to see and I really hope it’s the blueprint for the future. I really hope skill wins out over strength. Look at Germany. They play a much more technical game today, and that’s the football we want to see. We want to see the ball moving, not the players, and you only get that with teams that are really well organised. That’s they way Barça play today an that’s the way my Santos played. I was very lucky.”(via FCBarcelona.com)