Can a player that never played domestic football at a top level even be considered the GOAT? Yes 3 WC's, but 2 of those Brazil teams are in the running for the best ever WC team. Full of stars. I have seem hundreds of hours of Messi, Ronaldinho (my choice) and both Ronaldo's, less of Maradona but very little of Pele so it is difficult to judge and the game was very different then, but can you really say that a player that only ever played 90% of his football at a lower levels deserves to be called The Goat?
Santos played the European Champions Benfica with Euseubio and beat them with ease. The Brazilian league at the time was as good as Europe.
Put it this way, imagine the likes of Pele and Maradona (May God Give them Heaven) having the facilities the brats get now.
It’s a generational thing, you prefer who you’re familiar with, a bit like thinking that Oasis are better than The Beatles, which is also wrong..
Another barnpot idea from Infantino: Fifa will ask every country in the world to name a stadium in honour of Pelé, its president, Gianni Infantino, said on Monday. Pelé, the Brazil great who won the World Cup three times and scored more than 1,000 goals, died last Thursday aged 82. Infantino, who is in Brazil for Pelé’s funeral, told local reporters: “We’re going to ask every country in the world to name one of their football stadiums with the name of Pelé.” In April 2021 Rio de Janeiro abandoned plans to name the famous Maracanã stadium after Pelé after it was vetoed by the state governor. Pelé’s coffin was placed inside the Vila Belmiro stadium in Santos on Monday, the home ground of the club where he spent virtually his entire career. Infantino released a statement on the day of Pelé’s death which began: “For everyone who loves the beautiful game, this is the day we never wanted to come. The day we lost Pelé.” Fifa’s Infantino will ask every country to name stadium in honour of Pelé
The list according to most people (not me) is (in no particular order) Pele Maradona Cruyff Di Stefano Beckenbauer Messi Ronaldo (Brazil)
Messi's longevity at the elite level has long since proven his as the best to ever do it. Maradona's greatest achievement is tainted by cheating, and he done far less in the game than Messi.
The reason you've seen less of Pele, is because less coverage was given at the time, of which even less has survived for the public today. When Pele played, most of Brazil's good players were still playing in Brazil. Nowadays, anyone considered good enough in Europe tends to play in European leagues, since there are fewer restrictions now, as opposed to back then. Therefore, the Brazilian league was much stronger back then, arguably as strong as, or stronger than the European leagues when Pele played. You will also note that the list of Intercontinental Cup winners back then was evenly matched between South American and European sides, with Santos winning both of their only finals against Benfica and AC Milan, respectively. This further demonstrates that the Brazilian and South American leagues were not inferior in terms of the quality of football at the time. Therefore, I think you have no argument whatsoever to claim Pele deserves less credit than usually given. RIP Pelé
That above, plain and simple, as an old man Pelé was the greatest, football in the great man's day was hard, no wet weather footballs but leather ones with stitching, and if you headed or kicked it was like kicking a stone ball, no wet weather stadiums that were built where the roof can cover up against the elements. Football and really any sport in Pelé's time was a man's sport, hack a player down and he would just get up, dust himself down and carry on as normal, not like the players nowadays, just touch them with your finger and they would hit the ground, roll over in agony as if they had been hit by a double-decker bus.
Manuel Moreno, Maradona and Di Stefano are at least as good if not better (this is according to people who saw them and Messi not me)
If players could just get up constantly after hack downs they must've been very weak tackles. I'm sure it's an exaggeration that it happened all the time anyway. Anyway it doesn't make players better just because they played in a supposed dirtier era. There are things nowadays that make it harder to be a top player and stand out nowadays like the speed of the game and playing against other fully fit players
That would be a sight for sore eyes seeing them play nowadays, I wonder what the transfer market (selling/buying) would be, the mind staggers.
