Pelé Trivia
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50 free Pelé trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Pelé trivia quiz covers the King of Football from a boy kicking a grapefruit in Bauru to the honorary knighthood, the Cosmos and the Athlete of the Century award. The easy questions are the ones every football fan should know: his country, his club, how many World Cups he won and the shirt number FIFA handed him by accident in 1958. From there it gets harder: the inventor he was named after, the goalkeeper whose name he mispronounced, the futsal team that sharpened his thinking, the president who declared him a national treasure, the two Copa Libertadores wins, the hat-trick in Lisbon, the plaque at the Maracanã, the penalty that made 1,000 goals, the Banks save he never scored, the blind pass to Carlos Alberto, the Puma laces at the 1970 quarter-final, the ministry he held, and the record Neymar finally broke. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on Pelé, Santos FC, the World Cup finals and Escape to Victory before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our World Cup, Brazil and Lionel Messi quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What was Pelé's real name?
Edson Arantes do Nascimento
Edson Arantes do Nascimento was named after inventor Thomas Edison and was proud of it; he thought 'Pelé' sounded like baby-talk and wanted to be called Edson.
Q 02Which German star left Bayern Munich in 1977 to become Pelé's club teammate in the United States?
Franz Beckenbauer
Franz Beckenbauer arrived for Pelé's farewell season and they won the league title together within months; he later called Pelé the greatest player in the history of the game.
Q 03Pelé said his nickname probably came from mispronouncing the name of which goalkeeper on his father's team?
Bilé
Bilé kept goal alongside Pelé's father; the toddler's 'Pilé' became Pelé at school in Bauru, and he hated the name so much that he punched a classmate and was suspended for two days.
Q 04With no money for a real football, the young Pelé learned the game by kicking a stuffed what?
A sock
A sock packed with rags or newspaper was his ball in the streets of Bauru, where his father, a footballer whose own career had stalled, taught him to play.
Q 05Which game did the teenage Pelé credit with teaching him to think faster, playing for a team called Radium?
Futsal
Futsal let him play against adults at about 14; told he was too young for one tournament, he finished it as top scorer and said it taught him not to fear whatever came.
Q 06For which Brazilian club did Pelé score 643 competitive goals after joining at age 15?
Santos
Santos took him on after scout Waldemar de Brito told the directors the 15-year-old would be the greatest football player in the world; he stayed for 19 seasons.
Q 07Brazil never lost a match when Pelé and which winger, the hero of the 1962 World Cup, both played?
Garrincha
Garrincha lost only once in a Brazil shirt, at the 1966 World Cup, and Pelé was out injured that day.
Q 08How many goals did Pelé score in the 1958 Paulista state league season, the competition's all-time record?
58
58 goals and a World Cup win in the same year brought million-dollar bids from European clubs, and every one was turned down.
Q 09In 1961 the Brazilian government declared Pelé what, to stop him being transferred abroad?
An official national treasure
An official national treasure was hard to sell abroad, and Pelé never played for a European club; he left Brazilian football only in 1975, aged 34.
Q 10Which American statesman appealed to Brazil's government in the 1970s to help bring Pelé to the United States?
Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger, then secretary of state, argued that Pelé's arrival would help football take root in America and bring the two countries closer.
Q 11Pelé scored the late winner in Buenos Aires as his club retained the 1963 Copa Libertadores against which team?
Boca Juniors
Boca Juniors scored first at their own Bombonera before the Brazilians hit back to win 2–1, Pelé getting the winner eight minutes from time to keep South America's club title.
Q 12Pelé scored a hat-trick in Lisbon as his club beat which side 5-2 in the 1962 Intercontinental Cup?
Benfica
Goalkeeper Costa Pereira said he had been undone by 'someone who was not born on the same planet as the rest of us'.
Q 13Which stadium put up a bronze plaque for a 1961 Pelé solo goal, giving Brazil the phrase 'gol de placa'?
The Maracanã
Q 21Brazil beat which host nation 5-2 in the 1958 World Cup final, with two goals from the 17-year-old Pelé?
Sweden
Sweden's Sigge Parling admitted that after the fifth goal even he wanted to cheer for him; at the whistle the 17-year-old wept in his teammates' arms.
Q 22Pelé scored a second-half hat-trick in the 1958 World Cup semi-final against which team?
France
He had become the tournament's youngest scorer against Wales in the quarter-final.
Q 23Which former president presented Pelé with the first Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000?
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela made the presentation at the first Laureus awards in Monaco, in the speech where he declared that sport has the power to change the world.
The Maracanã plaque was a sportswriter's idea after Pelé ran from the edge of his own box through the Fluminense defence; even Fluminense's own fans stood and applauded for nearly two minutes.
Q 14How did Pelé score his 1,000th goal, against Vasco da Gama in 1969?
A penalty
A penalty: when it went in, fans and reporters flooded the pitch, and he used the moment to ask Brazil to look after its children.
Q 15Which conflict supposedly paused for a 48-hour ceasefire so both sides could watch Pelé play?
The Nigerian Civil War
The Nigerian Civil War truce is probably a legend: a researcher who combed the newspapers of the time found no mention of it, and Pelé's own memoir stops short of claiming one.
Q 16Which US club did Pelé join in 1975, coming out of semi-retirement?
New York Cosmos
New York Cosmos executive Clive Toye won him over by saying that in Italy or Spain he could only win a championship, but in the United States he could win a country.
Q 17Which team did Pelé's side beat 2-1 in the 1977 Soccer Bowl, his last official match?
Seattle Sounders
Seattle Sounders lost in Portland to goals from Steve Hunt and Giorgio Chinaglia; in the locker room afterwards Pelé said, 'God has been kind to me. I can die now.'
Q 18Which boxer stood beside Pelé on the pitch before his 1977 farewell match?
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali joined him for the ceremony at Giants Stadium; Pelé then played one half for each of his two clubs, and when rain fell a Brazilian paper's headline read 'Even the Sky Was Crying'.
Q 19How many World Cups did Pelé win, a record for any player?
Three
1958, 1962 and 1970; he only received his 1962 medal in 2007 because he missed the final through injury.
Q 20Against which country did Pelé score his first international goal, aged 16, in a 2-1 defeat in 1957?
Argentina
Argentina won 2–1 in Rio, but three days later the 16-year-old scored again in São Paulo and Brazil took the Roca Cup after extra time.
Q 24Pelé was injured in Brazil's second game of the 1962 World Cup against which team, later beaten in the final?
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia drew that game 0–0 and met Brazil again in the final, where Pelé's stand-in Amarildo, who scored three goals in his absence, got the equaliser in a 3–1 win.
Q 25Whose two goals knocked a limping Pelé and Brazil out of the 1966 World Cup?
Eusébio
Eusébio scored twice in Portugal's 3–1 win at Goodison Park, while defender João Morais went unpunished for the tackles that left Pelé limping in an era without substitutes.
Q 26In Brazil's only 1966 World Cup win, Pelé became the first to score at three successive tournaments, against which team?
Bulgaria
Bulgaria's defenders kicked him so persistently in that 2–0 win that he missed the next game injured, and he left England vowing never to play in another World Cup.
Q 27Which goalkeeper's block of Pelé's header at the 1970 World Cup is called the 'save of the century'?
Gordon Banks
Gordon Banks turned the header over the bar; Pelé later said that of more than a thousand goals, the one people always asked him about was the one he didn't score.
Q 28Pelé dummied the goalkeeper without touching the ball, then shot just wide, in the 1970 semi-final against which team?
Uruguay
Uruguay's keeper Ladislao Mazurkiewicz was left stranded as the pass ran one side of him and Pelé the other; Uruguay had scored first, but Brazil won 3–1 to reach the final.
Q 29Pelé's headed opener in the 1970 World Cup final brought up which milestone goal for Brazil at World Cups?
100th
100th: the defender marking him, Tarcisio Burgnich, had told himself Pelé was 'made of skin and bones just like everyone else' and admitted afterwards, 'But I was wrong.'
Q 30Pelé's blind pass set up which teammate for Brazil's fourth goal in the 1970 final?
Carlos Alberto
Carlos Alberto said the goal was planned: the coach had told Jairzinho to drift left and drag Italy's left-back with him, opening the space the captain charged into.