Brazilian soccer legend and three-time World Cup winner Pele has expressed doubts over his national team ahead of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, saying that individual talent may not be enough to make up for a lack of team chemistry.
Brazil is still stinging from a humiliating end to their 2014 World Cup run, when they infamously lost 7-1 at home to Germany in the semifinals.
Since then, Brazil has had found its stride in international play. In qualifying for the 2018 World Cup, Brazil won 12 of 18 games while only dropping one match. Since Tite took over as manager of the national team in 2016, the squad has lost just once in 20 matches.
Pele’s Concerns
But while Pele doesn’t doubt the players or their manager, he expressed worries about a team that hasn’t been able to play together as a unit due to injuries at different times to key players including Neymar, Dani Alves, Renato Augusto, and Douglas Costa.
“There are only a few days until the World Cup starts and we still don’t have the right team,” Pele told Reuters on Wednesday. “Individually all the players are very good. But we’re not a team.”
Pele never went so far as saying that Brazil couldn’t win the World Cup this summer, however. In fact, he praised Neymar, saying that the striker who plays his club soccer for Paris Saint-Germain had the talent to lead his country to victory.
“Neymar is to me one of the best players in the world,” Pele told Reuters. “Today he is more mature and he has more experience but he isn’t going to win the World Cup on his own. It’s teams that win the World Cup.”
Neymar has only recently returned from a severe knee injury. On Sunday, he scored a goal in Brazil’s friendly victory over Croatia, the first time he has played in a competitive game since February.
Pele went on to talk about his model for the perfect World Cup team – a legendary group that he played a key role in.
“The greatest Brazil team of all-time was the one in 1970, with Tostao, Rivellino, Gerson and Pele all wearing the number 10 shirts for their clubs,” he said. “In the 1970 World Cup we spent more than six months together. That’s why it worked.”
Brazil Enters 2018 World Cup as Favorite
Despite Pele’s concerns, Brazil will head into the World Cup as one of the favorite to walk away with the trophy. They’ll start their tournament in Group E, where William Hill has installed the Brazilians as a 1/4 favorite to win the group over Switzerland (13/2), Serbia (7/1), and Costa Rica (16/1).
The bigger question is how Brazil will do against some of the world’s best teams in the knockout rounds. Brazil (4/1) is a virtual co-favorite with Germany (9/2) at most sportsbooks, ahead of other top contenders like France (11/2) and Spain (6/1).
Brazil opens the World Cup against Switzerland on June 17. They have one last friendly before the tournament begins, against Austria in Vienna on Sunday.
Pele is widely considered one of the greatest soccer players of all time. He scored 77 goals in 92 appearances for Brazil, winning the World Cup in 1958, 1962, and 1970, making him the only player ever to win the tournament three times.