"King of Soccer" Pele claimed Tuesday that the reason why the Brazilian Olympic soccer team has never won a gold medal is because he was not part of it.
Pele, whose full name is Edison Arantes do Nascimento, made the remarks during Tuesday's centennial celebration of his old home team, Brazil's Santos Club.
The 71-year-old Brazilian legend has been known to brew up a storm, and there was no exception at the centennial celebration.
At the celebration's press conference, Pele showed up wearing the jersey of rival Diego Armando Maradona.
He then went on to give his take on why the nation's soccer team has yet to win a gold medal.
"At 16 years old, I began to play and entered the national team, but the Olympics did not allow professional players to participate in Olympics that time," Pele told reporters.
"It is because I did not participate [that] the Brazil soccer team had never won the cup in the Olympic Games," he claimed.
But Pele later encouraged the Brazilian soccer team to win the gold in the London Olympics this August.
"This age, we have the best player," he said.
"Brazil needs this gold medal," Pele added.
The current Brazilian Olympic team has many talents, including Neymar da Silva Santos Jr. and Paulo Henrique in Santos.
