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
He was named after Thomas Edison; a birth-certificate error left many documents reading 'Edison'.
Q 02Pelé was named after which American inventor?
Thomas Edison
His parents dropped the 'i' to make Edson; his family nickname was Dico.
Q 03Pelé said his nickname came from mispronouncing his favourite player, a goalkeeper called what?
Bilé
In his 2006 autobiography he admitted he had no idea what 'Pelé' meant.
Q 04Unable to afford a football as a child, Pelé practised with a stuffed sock or what fruit?
A grapefruit
He grew up poor in Bauru, São Paulo state, earning money as a server in tea shops.
Q 05Which fast indoor game did Pelé credit with teaching him to think quickly, playing for a team called Radium?
Futsal
It let him play against adults at about 14, and he finished one tournament as top scorer with 14 or 15 goals.
Q 06For which Brazilian club did Pelé play from age 15, scoring 643 goals in 659 games?
Santos
That single-club record stood until Lionel Messi passed it with Barcelona in December 2020.
Q 07Who scouted the 15-year-old Pelé and called him the future 'greatest football player in the world'?
Waldemar de Brito
De Brito had coached him at Bauru Atlético Clube juniors; Pelé signed in June 1956.
Q 08How many goals did Pelé score in the 1958 Campeonato Paulista, a league record that still stands?
58
He had been the league's top scorer at 16 the year before.
Q 09In 1961 the Brazilian government declared Pelé what, to stop him being transferred abroad?
An official national treasure
Real Madrid, Juventus and Manchester United had all tried to sign him after the 1958 World Cup.
Q 10Which Italian club got Pelé to sign a 1958 contract, only for its owner to tear it up after Santos fans revolted?
Inter Milan
Valencia had also arranged a deal before the 1958 World Cup, but Santos refused to let him go.
Q 11Pelé's club won the Copa Libertadores in which two consecutive years?
1962 and 1963
They also won the Intercontinental Cup both years, beating Benfica and then AC Milan.
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 Brazilian phrase for a great goal was coined by Pelé's 1961 solo goal at the Maracanã?
Gol de placa
He ran from the edge of his own box past the whole team; even Fluminense fans gave a two-minute ovation.
Q 21Brazil beat which host nation 5-2 in the 1958 World Cup final, with two goals from the 17-year-old Pelé?
Sweden
He passed out at the final whistle and had to be revived by Garrincha.
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 23Why did Pelé end up wearing the number 10 shirt at the 1958 World Cup?
FIFA picked it; Brazil hadn't allocated numbers
The shirt he wore in the final sold for $4.9 million at Sotheby's in 2026.
Q 14Pelé's 1,000th goal, O Milésimo, came on 19 November 1969 against which club?
Vasco da Gama
It was a penalty at the Maracanã; the Brazilian postal service issued a stamp to mark it.
Q 15Which conflict supposedly paused for a 48-hour ceasefire in 1969 so both sides could watch Pelé?
The Nigerian Civil War
Local researchers have found no contemporary reports of it, and Pelé himself was unsure whether it happened.
Q 16Which US club did Pelé join in 1975, coming out of semi-retirement?
New York Cosmos
He was unveiled at a chaotic press conference at New York's 21 Club.
Q 17Which team did the Cosmos beat 2-1 in the 1977 Soccer Bowl, Pelé's last official match?
Seattle Sounders
The quarter-final that year drew a league-record crowd of 77,891.
Q 18Pelé's 1 October 1977 farewell exhibition was played at which New Jersey stadium?
Giants
He played one half for each side, scored a 30-yard free kick, and a Brazilian paper headlined 'Even The Sky Was Crying' when rain fell.
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
He remains Brazil's youngest ever goalscorer.
Q 24Against which opponent was Pelé injured in Brazil's second game of the 1962 World Cup?
Czechoslovakia
Brazil beat the same team in the final; medals only went to finalists until the rules changed in 1978.
Q 25Which Portuguese defender's two unpunished fouls left Pelé limping through Brazil's 1966 defeat?
João Morais
Referee George McCabe's failure to send him off is regarded as one of the worst refereeing errors in World Cup history; substitutes weren't allowed then.
Q 26Pelé's 1966 goal against which team made him the first to score in three successive World Cups?
Bulgaria
Persistent Bulgarian fouling injured him and he missed the defeat to Hungary.
Q 27Which goalkeeper's block of Pelé's header at the 1970 World Cup is called the 'save of the century'?
Gordon Banks
Pelé joked that of more than a thousand goals, people always ask about the one he didn't score.
Q 28Which Uruguay goalkeeper did Pelé's 'run around' dummy fool in the 1970 semi-final?
Ladislao Mazurkiewicz
He went around the keeper without touching the ball, then turned too far as he shot.
Q 29Pelé's headed opener in the 1970 final against Italy was Brazil's how-manyeth World Cup goal?
100th
His leap into Jairzinho's arms afterwards is one of the World Cup's most iconic images.
Q 30Pelé's blind pass set up which teammate for Brazil's fourth goal in the 1970 final?
Carlos Alberto
All but two of Brazil's outfield players touched the ball in the move.