I find this more often, almost all the time. People talking about Pele as the best ever without even seeing him play, just youtube clips. I don't like that people blindly put Pele automatically as the greatest ever just for going with what other people say. It's almost like there will not exist in human history somene better than Pele, ever again. Is he a secret god or something? I must had missed that on greek mythology class ( note : rumor also propagated by Pele himself). Maradona on the other hand is more plausible since he played much later on, more people would had been able to see him. Also if we actually take a look at opinions of all people who had lived to see Pele play live and can rate him properly, the amount that rate Pele as a "God" or the best ever is much less and the opinions are more diverse.
Good Point. I will add that the expertise of the journalists of Sports Ilustrated lies in other sports such as American football, basketball, hockey, baseball, boxing, etc. They are quite clueless when it comes to football/soccer.
[Once again, as someone who has a bit of inside knowledge here: "SI" has always maintained that the North American sports beat is their top priority, NOT association football IMHO.]
This really has no relevance when it comes to the draft you're referring to. Most of those involved in it (Raphael Honigstein, Jonathan Wilson, Gabriele Marcotti, etc.) are respected European-based journalists; their knowledge of the game is pretty second to none.
The list is complete nonsense. Sports Ilustrated is a good magazine for certain sports, not football. They shouldn't publish things they know nothing about.
Wrong. You will never have one list in which everyone agrees with, but I have seen a number of reasonable lists over the years. This one in particular is complete nonsense and shows whoever wrote is completely clueless and delusional.