The Argentinian magazine of “Goles” created a poll amongst its readers during the 1982 World Cup about the greatest players of World Cup history and in football in general. It used 50 percent the opinion of famous people, journalists, ex/current players, and the other half its readers. However, I only have the first 6 editions of the weekly results, which makes it a partial final result, but it’s as close to the final result that probably existed. It started with this edition during the beginning of June 1982. The opinion of its readers on the right side and the important people on the left side. In this round Barcelona president Núñez picked in the same order : Pelé, Cruijff and Maradona. Julio Iglesias: Di Stefano, Pelé and Beckenbauer Jorge González (El Salvador player): Pelé, Di Stefano and Maradona Zico: Pelé is number 1 as ‘king’. The prince is Cruijff and Beckenbauer. Rummenigge and Maradona are brushed aside as players that come and go. (Players that were evident competition for Zico at that time) Zito (former Brazil player): Pelé, Garrincha and Di Stefano. Franz Beckenbauer: Pelé, Di Stefano and Fritz Walter. For the readers, it varied from Pelé, Maradona, Di Stefano, Kempes, Jose Moreno, Cruijff, Sivori, Rummenigge, Beckenbauer, etc. Stay tuned for round 2.
For these old lists there is already a thread https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/o...-esp-1950s-1970s.2038892/page-2#post-35243426 I'd take nationalistic and evidently censored sources with a pinch of salt. The Wilson book on Argentine football shows the organized media deception that was going on at the time. It is however always interesting to see how statements by Zico et al. compare to previous times. In the 1994 World Cup preview by World Soccer both Zico and Beckenbauer said very different things.
Second edition Guy Thys (Belgian NT manager): Pelé, Di Stefano and Cruijff Platini (French player): Pelé, Di Stefano and Beckenbauer Koncilia (Austrian player): Pelé, Di Stefano and Cruijff Carlos Alberto (Brazilian and Kuwaití NT coach): Pelé number 1. Then Di Stefano and Beckenbauer Nestor Rossi (former Argentinian player): Di Stefano, Pelé and Cruijff Carlos Babington (Argentinian player): Pelé, Beckenbauer and Cruijff Jose Santamaría (Spanish NT manager): Pelé, Di Stefano and Cruijff The readers voted for Di Stefano, Pelé, Cruijff, Maradona, Beckenbauer, Zico, Kempes, Garrincha and Rummenigge. The next edition the results of the votes started to pile in. Stay tuned.
Do you also have this one from 1979 by El Grafico? (copied by Shoot) In this Koncilia and Platini also feature.
Round 3 Isidro Lángara (ex player of San Lorenzo): Zamora, Pelé and Di Stefano Julio Arzu (Honduras player): Pelé, Maradona and Zico Abdullah Al Boloushi (Kuwaití): Pelé on one side and Maradona and Zico on the other side. René Van Der Pless (Belgian TV reporter): Pelé and Di Stefano. In third place Maradona. Gerd Muller (former player): Pelé the only ‘king’. Then Di Stefano and Cruijff players of the entire field. Didier Braun (France football redactor): Pelé, Di Stefano and Cruijff. Carlos Maranhau (Brazilian redactor of Placar): Pelé The readers voted for Pelé, Maradona, Kempes, Di Stefano and Fillol Current votes had Pelé in first place with 42 points. 2. Di Stefano 22 3. Maradona 21 4. Cruijff 13 5. Beckenbauer 9 And the list continues... That was I believe in a June 1979 issue after Argentina played the FIFA all-stars. I think the British version that you provided is a legitimate translation of the original source in Spanish. I should have the original. If you are interested I can look for it and post it here.
4th edition Altobelli (Italian player): Pelé first, without a doubt. Then on the same level Di Stefano and Maradona Validimir Romassanov (Soviet TV correspondent): Pelé, Cruijff and Maradona “Juanito” (Spanish player): First Di Stefano, then Pelé and then Cruijff Jean Vincent (Cameroon coach): Pelé, Kopa and Rummenigge Louis Wouters (Belgian president): Pelé, Cruijff and Beckenbauer Nehoda (Czech player): The Star was Pelé then Cruijff and Rummenigge are second. Carbajal (Mexican player): Pelé, Ramallets and Koscis The readers chose Kempes, Maradona, Pelé, Cruijff, Fillol, Socrates, Di Stefano, Beckenbauer, Rummenigge, Passarella and Bertoni Current votes: 1. Pelé 57 2. Maradona 32 3. Di Stefano 26 4. Cruijff 18 5. Beckenbauer 12
5th edition Passarella (Argentinian captain): “Up till now the undisputed is Pelé, but of course he was able to feature in 4 World Cups” Carlos Alonso “Santillana” (Spanish player): “Pelé and Di Stéfano. In third place Cruijff” Helenio Herrera (former manager): “Good players there are many but geniuses only two: Pelé and Di Stéfano” Antonio Piechniczek (Poland manager): “Pelé, Cruijff and Beckenbauer. As for the 1982 World Cup, there are various stars Boniek, Platini and Falcao...although there are others that can’t be judged because of too few games, like Maradona, Zico and Rummenigge” Garrincha (former Brazilian player): “Pelé, Zito and Garrincha, even if they accuse me of an arrogant” Estaban Fernández Díaz (Mexican reporter): “Pelé, Gerson and Beckenbauer, in that order” The readers voted for Pelé, Gerson, Kempes, Passarella, Tarantini, Jairzinho, Gerson, Garrincha, Rivelino, Platini, Falcao. Current votes: 1. Pelé 60 2. Maradona 32 3. Di Stefano 28 4. Cruijff 20 5. Kempes 16
6th edition (final but partial results) Mario Patrón (Uruguay manager): “Pelé, Passarella and Yashin” Atilio Garrido (Uruguay journalist) “Pelé, Mazurkiewicz and Bobby Charlton” Ivan Mejia (Colombian reporter) “Pelé, Garrincha and Cruijff” Miguel Pieri (Spanish journalist) “Sekuralak, Yashin and Pelé” Hugo Galli (Mexican reporter): “Beckenbauer, Gerson and Garrincha” Juan Díaz (France Presse reporter) “Beckenbauer, Passarella and Falcao” Luis Arismendi (Spanish reporter): “Figueroa, Pelé and Passarella” Martin Lehnann (Uruguay photographer): “Pelé, Kempes and Rossi” Readers voted for Pelé, Cruijff, Di Stefano, Maradona, Passarella, Littbarski, Falcao, Kempes, Passarella, Beckenbauer, Eusebio, Tarantini. Current and final partial votes: 1. Pelé 75 2. Maradona 34 3. Di Stefano 29 4. Cruijff 24 5. Beckenbauer 21 ....