Every kid around the world who plays soccer wants to be Pele. I have a great responsibility to show them not just how to be like a soccer player, but how to be like a man.
PeleRead
When I was a footballer, I surrounded myself with footballers. We were all friends. But in Brasilia you don't know who your friends are. It can be a dangerous place.
Interpretation
True friendship can be difficult to identify in uncertain environments.
In this quote, PelΓ© reflects on his experiences as a professional footballer surrounded by people he believed to be friends. He contrasts this sense of camaraderie with the unpredictability of relationships in Brasilia, a place where trust and loyalty may be questioned, highlighting the complexities of friendship in different circumstances.
In practice
This quote can inspire discussions on the nature of friendship during a team-building seminar.
Every kid around the world who plays soccer wants to be Pele. I have a great responsibility to show them not just how to be like a soccer player, but how to be like a man.
The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.
No individual can win a game by himself.
I played for Santos at 16, and we had an excellent team, so it helped a lot. And then I played for Brazil at the Maracana against Argentina. So I get more experience. This was one year before the World Cup, and it made a lot of difference.
You must respect people and work hard to be in shape. And I used to train very hard. When the others players went to the beach after training, I was there kicking the ball.
I played futsal growing up in Baurd. In futsal you need to think quick and play quick so its easier for you when you move to normal football.
I ended up being friends with all my heroes. Lefty Frizzell, George Jones, Johnny Cash - it was incredible.
A good friend and a bad friend are like a perfume-seller and a blacksmith: The perfume-seller might give you some perfume as a gift, or you might buy some from him, or at least you might smell its fragrance. As for the blacksmith, he might singe your clothes, and at the very least you will breathe in the fumes of the furnace.
Hard-covered books break up friendships. You loan a hard covered book to a friend and when he doesnβt return it you get mad at him. It makes you mean and petty. But twenty-five cent books are different.
Your experiences will be yours alone. But truth and best friendship will rarely if ever disappoint you.
We secure our friends not by accepting favors but by doing them.
You should be nicer to him,' a schoolmate had once said to me of some awfully ill-favored boy. 'He has no friends.' This, I realized with a pang of pity that I can still remember, was only true as long as everybody agreed to it.
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