Pele: Football legend described former Welsh player as 'one of the best I've ever seen'

Former Wales football international Cliff Jones has shared his pride after learning what the late footballing legend, Pele, thought of him.

On Twitter, Jones, 87 said it fills him with pride "to know what he thought about me" after one of his followers tweeted a quote from Pele from the The Brazil Book of Football (1963).

Pele is said to have said the 'Welsh winger is one of the best players I have ever seen. He's very fast, and what I liked, too, was that when he gets the ball he works out his own game with it - back, across, or through the middle!'

The Brazilian footballer Pele widely regarded as the finest player football has ever known, died on Thursday at the age of 82.

He had undergone treatment for colon cancer since 2021 and had been hospitalised for the last month with multiple ailments.

Pele helped his national side to four World Cup finals and is the only player to win the tournament three times, which he did between 1958 and 1970.  

Jones was part of the Welsh side which lost to Brazil in the quarter finals of the 1958 tournament.

His side faced an array of footballing starts during that game but there was one they hadn't yet heard of.

“Of course we’d heard of Didi and Garrincha and Vavá. And we knew their qualities. But nobody had heard about Pelé.

“And of course we played, and I can always remember vividly Pelé picking the ball up deep in his own half and going past 3, 4 Welsh defenders and cracking this ball and Jack Kelsey managed to tip it over the bar.

“And we all looked at each other and said, ‘Who is this kid?’”

The kid, who was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, was just 17 at the time and proved the difference, scoring the only goal of the game in a 1-0 victory, with Brazil going on to win the tournament.

Since the news of Pele's death tributes have been pouring in across the globe with three days of mourning declared in Brazil.

Landmarks including ding Christ the Redeemer and the Maracana stadium have been lit up in green and yellow in honour of the footballing icon.

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