Brazil legend Pele is full of praise for current national team manager Tite and thinks the side has an excellent chance of winning this year’s World Cup under his leadership.

“I like Tite. He’s honest with the players,” Pele said. “He’s going to be good and going to do nice work with Brazil.”

Pele says this year’s team should be making the final at the very least, if not winning it all, although he noted that Tite will have difficulties in getting the squad together to build his team ahead of the World Cup in Russia, with Brazil’s best players scattered across Europe.

The former Santos player added that he is not a fan of the World Cup’s decision to expand to 48 teams starting from 2026, although he acknowledged that it was a good opportunity for more countries to make it to football’s showpiece event.

“The more teams you get, the lower the quality of the game,” said Pele. “I think it’s too many teams.

“Let’s see. Maybe some country who’s never come to the final, never won the World Cup, could win.”