The Ultimate Soccer Player to Walk the Earth

[bosterosoy]

Hmmm...what did Maradona really win?

1986 World Cup - Granted, but needed to handball to win a critical game

1990 WC Finalist.

2 Italian League Titles

1 Argentine League

1 UEFA Cup

An excellent record by all accounts. Who has surpassed this?

Hmm... Zidane, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, heck....Gennaro Gattuso has won more...basically, whatever Maradona has done in his career, many of today's great players have surpassed.

This is a load of ****. It shows how little you know about the game.

Maradona won the 1986 world cup single handedly. Ronaldinho, Ronaldo had each other when they won it. Gattuso plays on a team with the likes of Sheva, Maldini, Rui Costa, NEsta, Pirlo etc etc.

Maradona won that Uefa Cup and 2 Scudettos with Napoli. I bet you that if Maradona hadn't won those titles with Napoli, you would have no clue they had a footie team. The team was mediocre at best. Maradona went there and they started winning. Not only that, but the Serie A was the most competitve league in that time period.

Serie A teams in that time period (there were 3 cup competitions in Europe at that time):

1988-89: Milan win CL, Napoli won Uefa, Sampdoria lose in finals of Cup Winners Cup
1989-90: Milan win CL, Uefa Cup Final: Juventus beat Inter, Sampdoria win Cup winners Cup
1990-91: Uefa Cup Final: Inter beat AS Roma
1991-92: Sampdoria lose in CL Final in extra time v. Barcelona,Torino lose on away goals in Uefa Cup Final
1992-93: Milan lose in CL final, Juve win Uefa Cup on 6-1 aggregate, Parma win Cup Winners Cup
1993-94: Milan win CL, Inter win Uefa Cup
1994-95: Milan lose CL final, Another all Italian Final: Parma beat Juventus in Uefa Cup, Parma lose Cup Winners Cup.

Not only was Italian teams so dominate, but look how many teams were successful in Europe:

AC Milan
Inter Milan
Juventus
AS Roma
Parma
Napoli
Sampdoria
Fiorentina
Torino

Then throw in these teams:
Genoa (91-92 Uefa Cup Semis)
Verona Hellas (87-88 Quarterfinals of Uefa)
Cagliari (93-94 Uefa Cup Semis)
Atalanta (9-91 Uefa Quarterfinals)
Lazio (94-95 Uefa Cup Quarterfinals)

Serie A had 18 teams in top division. During the span of 7 years, 14 teams made it to at least the quarters of a European competition, while 9 made it to the finals in one of the 3 competitions. Also, in 89-90, they won all three European Tournies

* and yes I do realize that I did go a little past Maradona's time at Napoli

[bosterosoy]

bosterosoy: We obviously disagree in regards to the Pele vs Maradona debate, but I agree with you 100% when u say that u hate people who say that one or the other was better because of World Cups.
These guys would play 50 games a year, and then some people who don't know anything about soccer and are influenced by others would watch them play 3 or 4 times during a world cup and make a judgement out of that. This guy I know (also one who doesn't know crap about soccer) said that he thinks that Van Nistelrooy is horrible because he was a bench player during the last world cup. I guess that 10 years being a top striker in the Netherlands, England and now Spain isn't enough to be considered good....

Its soo annoying. Have you ever been told that Beckham was one of the top 10 players of all-time???
I was ready to punch the kid in the face for such stupidity

[bosterosoy]

I want to get one thing straight

Maradona
Pele
Beckenbauer
Di Stefano
Puskas
Cryuf
Best
Eusebio

These are probably the only players that should be mentioned in this post titled 'The Ultimate Football Player to Walk the Earth'

Dont come in here talking about Ronaldinho, Messi, Rooney, Zidane etc etc

* ok maybe they arent the only players, but its just a quick list

[Buffon83]

Pele

I know that my opinion is not a new one but here are some of the reasons why I feel this way.


1281 goals in 1363 matches
Top Brazilian goal scorer of all times
127 goals for Santos F.C. in 1959
110 in 1961 and 101 goals in 1965
Led the club to two World Club championships
Holds the world record for hat tricks (92)
Holds the record for number of goals scored on the international level (97)That right there is pretty amazing in itself.

[Zhenia Sapozhkov]

Romario

[sidis]

Talent
Speed
Ball control
amazing finishing skills


Talent: pelé have more than maradona, pelé was more skilled with head, play in more positions.

Speed: pelé was faster than maradona, and play 20 year before maradona, pelé is faster in 100m than maradona and faster in short sprints.

ball control: both are awesome, but pelé have more direct dribbles, even scoring great goals.

finishing skills: well, pelé was better. i need to explain?

[Rhodes]

Forget Pele, Charlton, Best, Cruyff and Maradonna, surely the ultimate player to walk the earth has to be Clement Temile, former Nigerian International from the 1980's who had everything, he was incredibly fast making the likes of Carl Lewis, Ben Johnson and Linford Christie seem tortoise like in comparison. For those of you who are interested Clement is currently coaching in London with a Club called Kentish Town, he has totally transformed them in his short spell there although this is hardly surprising considering his pedigree in the beautiful game.

[hell-side-boy]

Sergio Conceiçao en Steven Defour that last i belgium's biggest talent

[illusion]

Talent: pelé have more than maradona, pelé was more skilled with head, play in more positions.

Speed: pelé was faster than maradona, and play 20 year before maradona, pelé is faster in 100m than maradona and faster in short sprints.

ball control: both are awesome, but pelé have more direct dribbles, even scoring great goals.

finishing skills: well, pelé was better. i need to explain?

cough cough....bias...cough....I'm chocking! :D

[sidis]

cough cough....bias...cough....I'm chocking! :D

you are free to argument.

[jameslamont]

Im not sure he is the best ever, but Sir Stanley Matthews is definatly near the top of the list.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/98/Stanley_Matthews.jpg

Playing into your fifties in any era is remarkable.

[Gregoriak]

Regarding the goalkeeping skills of the past, they are often ridiculed by some people today. Right in this thread. Check out this amazing double-save by Jimmy Montgomery, a second division goalkeeper of the late-60s and 1970s ...

3MQ6fRbBGyk

[lanman]

Regarding the goalkeeping skills of the past, they are often ridiculed by some people today. Right in this thread. Check out this amazing double-save by Jimmy Montgomery, a second division goalkeeper of the late-60s and 1970s ...

Great keeper and a really nice guy to boot. Were it not for the strength of England's keepers in the 70s he would probably have got quite a few international caps. The double save is arguably the most famous in English football (almost certainly at domestic level).

[tutto_azzurri]

baggio.


next...

[djgringo]

The Ultimate Soccer Player is Herry from Arsenal FC

[LOS_DE_ABAJO]

I used to think Pele was the best without any doubts, because that was what the average consensus of people who had lived at that time; the media and people who I personally knew who had seen Pele in action also played a huge role. My grandfather used to tell me about him when I was little and would show me magazines from the 60's and tell me a bunch of stories about how he watched some of his games when he came to Chile and how people adored him. But, after years of watching many of his games and goals I noticed something that many others had said before; that many players who play right now could probably do the same or more damage if they were presented with that much space and time. Pele was still one of the best players at the time but it would be very hard and controversial to compare him to players nowadays because of the fact that the defensive aspect of the game has changed so much since the 1950's and 60's.

[jerrito]

I used to think Pele was the best without any doubts, because that was what the average consensus of people who had lived at that time; the media and people who I personally knew who had seen Pele in action also played a huge role. My grandfather used to tell me about him when I was little and would show me magazines from the 60's and tell me a bunch of stories about how he watched some of his games when he came to Chile and how people adored him. But, after years of watching many of his games and goals I noticed something that many others had said before; that many players who play right now could probably do the same or more damage if they were presented with that much space and time. Pele was still one of the best players at the time but it would be very hard and controversial to compare him to players nowadays because of the fact that the defensive aspect of the game has changed so much since the 1950's and 60's.

Sport changes constantly. Because of that I think that the best measure of greatness over time is how much better a player is during his playing days than his peers. As much as I love Maradona, Baggio and others, and as great as they were, for me the answer to the question is still Pele. And yes, Pele was a more complete player than Maradona, whose left foot was magic, but whose right foot was almost an afterthought. Granted, he was so great that he was the best of his time without having to use it. But Pele could use both, and his head, and dribble, and shoot, and cross, and...

[Tribune]

I used to think Pele was the best without any doubts, because that was what the average consensus of people who had lived at that time; the media and people who I personally knew who had seen Pele in action also played a huge role. My grandfather used to tell me about him when I was little and would show me magazines from the 60's and tell me a bunch of stories about how he watched some of his games when he came to Chile and how people adored him. But, after years of watching many of his games and goals I noticed something that many others had said before; that many players who play right now could probably do the same or more damage if they were presented with that much space and time. Pele was still one of the best players at the time but it would be very hard and controversial to compare him to players nowadays because of the fact that the defensive aspect of the game has changed so much since the 1950's and 60's.

Ok. Do tell me : what full games have you seen ?

[CCSC_STRIKER20]

Pele. Better player and better person than Maradona. I also highly rate Cruyff.

[JacopeX]

1. Pele
2. Cruyff
3. Beckenbauher
4. Maradona