This is not even comments made by a brazilian, but it's truly the best I ever read: The greatest football player ever, or does anyone have a different opinion?? Is there anyone, who says Pelé is not the greatest player ever? The real problem is to find an acceptable comment against Pelé beeing the greatest ever. There are times when there appears someone pointing someone else than Pelé as the greatest football player ever. In Argentina you'll find the strongest candidate, Maradona. Cruyff and Pele's team-mate Garrincha also are commented here and there. Here are the four most common comments against Pelé: 1: Pelé lived in a time when you had more freedom to move in the arena, without getting hurt than for example Maradonna. That may be the most incorrect comment of them all, we are talking about a time when there is no discipline, almost no rules and no strong organisation protecting the players. There were no yellow or red card and players could do almost whatever they wanted on the arena, without getting punished. Pelé himself got experience from this when he was violently hurted both in the world cup 62 and 66. Some teams even had plans to hurt the star of the opposite team. Today injuries are much easier to cure, Pelé never got an operation in whole his life, until he was 58 years old. So it is really amazing he could stay in the absolute top of football for almost 20 years. 1 282 goals in 1 375 games. That is the total number of goals scored from Pelé during his victorious career. 2elé won his three world cups in a team full of stars, that is easy. Maradonna won his world cups alone. That is true, but remember that this could be a comment for pelé aswell, he was the king in a time of genius players (Cruyff, Di stefano, Garrincha, Beckenbauer, Puskas), who were the rivals of Maradonna? 3elé never played in an european club, his football never were tested in Europe Maradonna himself said that Pelé would be weaker in an european team, the fact is that Pelé may never have played in an european team, but he did play against european teams, in total he played 100 international matches with Santos, most of them against european teams. He won the world cup for clubs final 2 times (against Juventus 62 and Benfica 63). With Brazil he scored as many goals/matches as he did with Santos, it didn't matter what defense he played against, no one could stop him. Besides that, who said european clubs were better than Brazilian clubs when Pelé played football (all the great Brazilian players in that time played in Brazil)? 4:Maradonna was a better dribbler than Pelé was. I would agree that Maradonna was a better dribbler than Pelé, but Pelé was more complete as a player and he was much more efficicient than Maradonna, Pelé would rather pass the ball than dribble if someone was better positioned than himself. Another fact is that there are few pictures of amazing Pelé numbers, we only have words about some fantasitic goals he scored with Santos, while we have all seen Maradonna's greatest moments and numbers. Pelé could also switch from running past the defense to dribbling the players, maradonna didn't possesed a speed even close to Pelé's. Another remarkable thing about Pelé is that he could play both as playmaker and striker in the same time. He was so complete that he even played as goalie for Santos 3 times and no one ever scored against him. Overall Maradonna probably was slightly more technical than Pelé, but not even close to as complete as "O rei". two moments we'll remember It sounds like a lie that 2 of the most remembered numbers from Pelé didn't result with a goal. Both occured in the same match, the classic 1970 world cup semi-final between Brazil and Uruguay, which did end 3-1 to Brazil. Uruguay took the lead early in the match and memories from the final 1950, when Uruguay beat Brazil were coming back to the Brazilians. Later Brazil would win the match, but what will be remembered from this match would be two numbers from "O rei" which didn't end with a goal. One of them was a body dribble against the goalie, he just ran around the goalie leitting the ball go around the goalie in the other side, without even touching the ball, but then he missed the open goal! What most people don't know is that Pelé had already scored a goal simular to this 8 years before this game! Another classic Pelé moment was when he in this match watched that the goalie was positioned a good distance from the goal, so the genius Pelé shot the ball with only one touch directly after receiving the ball, from the middle of the arena, but he missed the goal with less than a meter Want to see the original: http://hem.passagen.se/marpis/pelethebest.htm There's more: http://hem.passagen.se/marpis/maradonnapele.html
It`s 'Maradona' not 'Maradonna'. This guy is not up-to-date, it seems. Every Pelé admirer should by now got hold of a copy of the fantastic 'Pelé Eterno' DVD. It`s full of Pelé magic.
'Pelé Eterno' is a must see movie for anyone who wants to debate this topic. However, this topic is like the Israel/Palistine issue, it will never be resolved.
I think it is strictly who was the most skillful because if it's about Pele and Maradona for anything else that they contributed to the game, there would be no discussion.
pele is the king of football and thats never gonna change so when u r talking about the best players of all time, u should take out pele, and start naming from there bcuz pele was just a geneus, no one could compare to him.
It's a fact that he was hunted on the field all the time. But he learned to give it back - just ask the Uruguayan defender in 1970. However, he wasn't violently hurted in 1962. Sorry, but in my opinion it is foolish to accept that only to seem more pondered. Just watch Pelé Eterno. Artistry at its best! Curiously, as pointed out, the debate in Brazil has always been about who, between Pelé and Garrincha, was the best. The old Brazilian players and journalists who saw Distéfano and Maradona tend to consider the first the best Argentine player.
We must remember, 2 different times. When Pele was King (as he still is now, IMO), thre was no internet, very little television, and very little radio. I grew up, pretty much, on Diego. Television with football was beginning to hit the States, Soccer America magazine was highlighting the world's game.. As said before, Pele is King. It's all a subjective opinion.
ok everyone is talking about the dvd that pele has......and i heard it from friends as well, but i didnt know it had come out already. so where can i buy it? and when did it come out?
Pelé Eterno came out in 2004 and more info can be found here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420066/ Finding it is difficult. I suggest that you type "Pelé Eterno" in google and just start looking to order it. You cant find it at amazon.com.
Well that is tough. Get the one that is 'most skillful' and they get too old in a few years. Or they get injured. Or they fail a drug test and cannot play for you. I don't these things can really be compared. To go deeper on it, one would have to prove which skills exactly were more important - which cannot be done, because this varies from game to game. But I understand that it's fun to talk about
Aren't there any players who played against Maradona and Pele? It's possible if he played against Pele in the beginning of his career and against Maradona towards the end. I think it would be interesting as I just read a quote from Maldini, who played against Maradona and Ronaldinho. He named Maradona as the best player he ever played against but also noted that Ronaldinho was extremely skilled.
Pele was better, enuff said. But then again I'm Brasilian so that might sound biased since Brasilians will always say Pele was better and Argies will always say Maradona was better, but when you ask the rest of the world, most will say Pele.
I say Maradona. They both dominated their respective eras, no doubt, but it was easier to dominate in Pele's time. The game was slower and the defenders less skilled, any objective person that watches their videos will tell you that. Pele was clearly better-rounded and a better scorer but for my money, Maradona was the best.
Maradona obviously. He was the best player to ever play the game. Pele was good but never played in Europe were the REAL competition was.
everyone has their own opinion, except some ppl's opinions are just a little better than others......
ummm...........the REAL competition wasnt really in europe... pele was world champion with SANTOS..............south america.............. if ur gonna pick maradona at least dont put pele down like that by saying "maradona obviously."
Oooh someone is mad because i am saying the truth!!! Fact is Pele played for the peice of crap Brazilian league that had no good players!! How many good players besides Pele came from that league?? I REST MY CASE!!