When talking about footballing greats, few others come close to being mentioned in the same breath as Pelé and Diego Maradona.
But that leads us to the much-debated question: Who is the better of the two? Who is the greatest of them all?
Personally, I would say it is Maradona. The highlight of his career came in the summer of 1986, when the squat little man from Buenos Aires temporarily suspended physics and gravity. In ten seconds of pure magic, he danced past six English defenders, sidestepped the keeper, and slotted home what is widely regarded as "the goal of the century."
And this came minutes after scoring the most controversial goal in history.
Pelé scored a record 1283 goals and won the World Cup thrice. But he also played with one of the best ever football line-ups—the 1960s Brazilian squad. Their victorious campaign of 1962, in which Pelé was mostly absent due to injury, proves that they were certainly capable even without him.
Moreover, Pelé was an out-and-out striker. His purpose was simply to finish and score goals, and for this reason he was a monotonous.
Maradona lifted the World Cup only once, but he did it single-handedly. He led a team of not-so-gifted players to victory, and it is said that Mardona could have brought the Cup to any of the eight teams in the ’86 quarterfinals. Such was his presence and contribution.
He followed up his England match with two dazzling goals against Belgium and an assist that decided the final. At club level, he led Napoli to their only two Serie A titles and their sole UEFA Cup win.
Maradona was a more complete player than Pelé. Starting his runs deep in the midfield, he would weave past defenders and deliver dangerously precise passes or finish himself. His freekicks were also lethal and he rarely touched the ball with his right foot, except for balance. A magical left foot was all that took him to work his wizardry.
He courted controversy with the same enthusiasm that he reserved for his spectacular goals. His notorious "Hand of God" goal and the bans owing to substance abuse bear testimony to that fact.
His creativity and flair, coupled with technical brilliance and outstanding vision, led to many wondrous goals. In moments of inspiration, he achieved on a football field what might be difficult to achieve on canvas. Penning poetry with his feet, he executed moments of motion—outrageously brilliant and impossible in their beauty.
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8 months ago
I think ur nuts. Pele was imba!
8 months ago
Highyly subjective. Football didn't begin and end with the three decades you mentioned in your article. I can give you a list or arguably the best owho have ever danced to the tunes of the beautiful game "El jogo bonito".
So we can only say arguable the best. No single player has rose above the game itself. All of them have contributed in making the game the way it is. The best gift of God to mankind.....
The Beautiful game...
8 months ago
You have obviously not seen footage of Pele' dribling and scoring. Boring is far from it. He was the most complete athlete playing with both feet, head and also as a goalkeeper! Long succesfull carreer versus 1986 highlight? I doubt Maradona could have impressed kings and queens like Pele did. I doubt Maradona could have stopped a civil war in Africa for both sides to watch him play! Pele is not only considered the best in this sport, but also the athlete of the century by the International Olympic Comitte, right above Muhammad Ali, Carl Lewis and Mihael Jordan, even though he was never in the Olympics...
8 months ago
Pele was also a midfielder. He created plays for many of his teamates. The best players in the worldincluding Maradona, have since wore the number 10 of Pele. Before him, 10 was just a number... No drugs for this guy, just clean physical training for over 2.5 decades!
8 months ago
Pele is far from boring. Besides, he had a lot of team spirit. A party was organized for him because of his victories, ut he didn't go becuase his team members were invited and also because he believed that every single player had worked for winning the cup.
8 months ago
maradona is the best. you are right. he is from another planet.
from 8 months ago
aha! atleast one guy who agrees. thanks man, i appreciate it
8 months ago
Michael Jordan was the best...
8 months ago
okay pele was not boring, but he was far from the greatness of Diego Maradona, on the pitch there has never been anyone more important to his side than Maradona was. that is the bottom line.
who cares if Pele played back up goalkeeper for santos? that proves they could survive without him at his natural position. a Maradona side, without maradona suffered. also Maradona won in South America, Spain and Italy. Pele in Only Brazil (U.S. does not count, okay the NASL was better than the MLS but the league was built for Pele)
8 months ago
Maradona is clearly the greatest who ever lived. No argument is piossible if you have witnessed his entire career, particularly the early days at Boca Juniors (he did things that defy explanation) and the Napoli years.
David in Scotland
8 months ago
to all those who still don't agree with me, just tell me one thing. do u think pele would've lifted the world cup if he played in place of maradona in 86? brazil would've won it without pele, so maradona in his place would've been just an added bonus...
7 months ago
greatest athletes ever;
1. Bo Jackson
2. Maradona
3. Pele
4. Jordan
5. Dion Sanders
7 months ago
Without a doubt it's got to be Pele' . He epitomized what the sport was about and if anything did more for the sport to gain worldwide recognition than any other player has. And even though people talk about the likes of Maradona and Beckham. The latter two didn't possess the skills or poise that Pele' had.
And his overall career record speaks for itself more than anything else !
tophatal ...............
5 months ago
maradona did things that defy explanation, I´ve never seen pelé have that magic touch, dribble past 5 players in 2 seconds, lead humble teams to world class glory, no, he was a robust player surrorunded by stars who did the job without him. don´t be biased, you only have to watch the videos, your eyes won´t lie to you, watch maradona highlights on youtube, you´ll see who´s boss.
5 months ago
Pele and Maradona are both gifts from the gods.
Garrincha was also at that imortal level but played for too short a time. James Dean of football.
Romario comes close but just not there...
Baggio,Ronaldinho,Zico and several others have had the gift but not taken it to the finishline.
Please people don`t call Beckham`s name with these guys ...lightning will burn our modems. He`s on a lower rank.
Below Beckham come the mere mortals poking a ball around.
5 months ago
Great article. You are entitled to your opinion. I agree but also disagree with some.
Anyway great read.
Maradona was really fantastic.
If you get more footage on Pele you might see that he was also very subtle and genius.
He only became tough in the latter years to avoid the tackles......Maradona was tough as well but probably in a smarter way....cleverly avoiding tackles.
They both rule!!
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