and Puskas doesn't make this list, assuming you are claiming these are the four greatest footballers?
I can't say Maradona was that much better than Cruyff to be honest. They were all far far better than Cristiano Ronaldo though.
Cristiano beat puskas record and puskas was fat, slow and had 1 foot, and was Hungarian to top it all off Ronaldo has a 6 pack, fast, good with both feet and head.
I frankly have a very difficult time understanding these types of comments. If one were to bring up Neymar in the conversation, then yes, it'd be ridiculous. But what is so ridiculous about bringing up a player that has been Top 2 at his trade for at least 5 years? (with no sign of stopping any time soon)
Maybe was more exactly saying that even Messi is still not in that so high slot, so neither Cristiano Ronaldo. Messi is for me among the 20th and 30th position of all-time, Cristiano Ronaldo among the 40th and 50th position, meanwhile Pelé, Maradona and Cruyff are into the top 5 ever.
That's your opinion, and I respect it. I think its too difficult and a waste of time to compare players across generations. Everyone is either too nostalgic or forgets the fact that the parameters of what makes an amazing player changes with each generation. It is beyond me how people continuously use the "lack of NT success" argument against Messi and Ronaldo when comparing them to Pele, etc. If people want to think winning the World Cup in 1958 is anywhere near identical to winning it now, then they can go ahead. For the record, I'm not saying that they are in Maradona and Pele's league, I just think that it is a lot closer than people here would like to think, especially since these two players are another planet when compared to their very own contemporaries.
Only because of marketing. Only Pelé is superior to (almost) anyone, with his three world cups and 1200 goals. Not that I take you serious anyway.
There is not much between Ronaldo and Messi. Especially if he wins the CL this year. His euro2004 performance tops all of Messi his performances until now. Besides, if you put Baggio into Barcelona, he will also score 40 goals in a year. Certainly.
Always it's subjective, as the main comparison of the thread. What happens is, for example taking the case of Pelé, he showed an impressive performance immediately since 1958 and was so regular among the best players of the world at least until 1973, around one and a half decade, what's apparently is still far for Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. I think it's not a nostalgic matter at this case. I'm agree with you that the ideas supporting just only about the World Cups or the national teams success seems me very often ridiculous.
True, but their contemporaries do sometimes better on the international scene. Take Schweinsteiger, or Robben for example. Some of their contemp. have played three or more good tournaments so far (Robben has been important and decisive in four so far).
Football marketing only began in the late 90s, the money players or clubs made prior to that was paltry compared to other sports such as baseball or basketball. Maradona overcame Cruyff after WC86, the conversation then became whether he could challenge Pele in the all-time list.
I judge players by the best they produce. Whether it is on a national team or club team is irrelevant to me. While the likes of Robben and Schweinsteiger had considerably better tournaments (like the last World Cup, for example) than Messi and Ronaldo, comparing both sets of players is futile to me because much of the reason why Messi and Ronaldo had such a crappy tournament (by their standards) was due to the even crappier coaching they had. Maradona didn't know what the hell he was doing and Queiroz was insistent on playing ultra-defensive soccer that would in no way benefit a player like Ronaldo. So yes, many of their contemporaries do better than them on the NT stage but to me a lot of the reason why is easily explainable.
Fat Ronaldo was a phenom until the injuries, weight issues and transvestite issues. Too bad we didn't get to see him have a full career. Big loss.