Comparisons can be a pain in the backside. My dad says that nobody was ever better than Tom Finney or Puskas, my older brother says George Best and Pele have no equals, I believe Maradona to be the best ever and my son says that Cristiano Ronaldo has more than the lot of them put together.
It has always been this way. We always think that the top players of ‘our generation’ are the best of all time. It is impossible to compare these great players because they are all from a different place and time. Of course George Best wouldn’t be as quick, as fit or strong enough to play in today’s Premiership and Ronaldo would have been even more of a phenomenon than he is now if you transported him back thirty or forty years.
You can only judge them by how good they were amongst their contemporaries. It is no good listening to anecdotal evidence because the fans of each player will only tell you why their particular favourite is the best of all time. The only way to judge this fairly is to look at the facts and figures. So let’s do it:
Pele
Santos 1956-1974
Domestic League games – 605
Domestic League goals – 589
International Club games – 18
International Club goals – 24
Best scoring season – 47 in 40 games 1959
International caps (Brazil) – 92
International goals – 77
Honours
3 World Cup winners medals. (Didn’t play in 1962 final through injury but was awarded a medal some years later)
19 Domestic club honours.
Named footballer of the century by FIFA. (Voted for by panel of experts. Maradona won an online public poll)
Named athlete of the century by the International Olympic Committee.
Pele’s brilliance
George Best
Manchester United 1963-1974
Domestic League games – 361
Domestic League goals – 137
International Club games – 34
International Club goals – 11
Best scoring season – 32 in 52 games 1968
International caps (N Ireland) – 37
International goals – 9
Honours
European Cup winner.
2 Domestic club honours.
European Footballer of the Year.
Football Writers Player of the Year.
English football Hall of Fame.
George Best’s brilliance
Diego Maradona
Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli 1981-1991
Domestic League games – 357
Domestic League goals – 181
International Club games – 32
International Club goals – 13
Best scoring season – 21 in 39 games 1988
International caps (Argentina) – 91
International goals – 34
Honours
World Cup winner
UEFA Cup winner
8 Domestic club honours
World Player of the Year
Named footballer of the century by an online poll. (Pele won the award as given by a panel of experts)
South American Footballer of the Year x 5
Diego Maradona’s brilliance
Cristiano Ronaldo
Manchester United 2003 – present
Domestic League games – 157
Domestic League goals – 61
International Club games – 43
International Club goals – 11
Best scoring season – 36 in 39 games 2008 so far
International caps (Portugal) – 54
International goals – 20
Honours
3 Domestic Club honours
Selected in FIFpro World XI
Selected in UEFA Team of the Year x 2
UEFA 2004 Team of the tournament
PFA Young Player of the Year x 2
PFA Footballer of the Year
Portuguese Footballer of the Year
Cristiano Ronaldo’s brilliance
So there we have the stats. What do we make of them? If you need some more help let’s look at what other people think of them and in some cases, what they think of themselves.
“Comparing Paul Gascoigne to Pele is like comparing Rolf Harris to Rembrandt” – Rodney Marsh.
“For 20 years they have been asking me the same question, who is the greatest? Maradona or Pele? I reply that all you have to do is look at the facts – how many goals did he score with his right foot or with his head?” – Pele
“George Best was able to use either foot. Sometimes he seemed to have six of them” – Sir Matt Busby
“Maradona good, Pele better, George Best” – Famous Irish saying
“I worked hard all my life for this. Those who say I don’t deserve anything, that it all came easy, can kiss my arse.” – Maradona
“Maradona is our maximum term of reference. No one embodies our essence better. No one bears our emblem more nobly. To no other, in the last twenty years, have we offered up so much passion. Argentina is Maradona, Maradona is Argentina.” – Argentinian psychologist
“Everyone went crazy over Wayne Rooney, but I get more excited by Cristiano Ronaldo.” -George Best
“There have been a few players described as the new George Best over the years, but this is the first time it’s been a compliment to me.” -George Best on Cristiano Ronaldo
So there we have it. It’s decision time. Does Cristiano Ronaldo deserve to be in this company yet? Could any of the other three score the goal that Ronaldo scored against Roma last night? Pele maybe. So if these are the greatest ever, what order do they go in?
I’ll go first and give my reasons:
1. Pele – a) 3 World Cup winners medals b) Scoring record c) Apart from Viagra, no drugs as far as we know d) He says he was better than Maradona
2. Diego Maradona – a) Won a World Cup almost single-handedly b) Talent and attitude, i.e. Kiss my arse c) Just too many drugs
3. Cristiano Ronaldo – a) Already performed at European and World Cups b) George Best said he is better than he was c) Hasn’t quite got the longevity yet
4. George Best – a) Wonderful player but Ronaldo has beaten his record b) Not his fault to be born in Northern Ireland but no major International success c) Too much booze.
Over to you.
Graham Fisher writes at Views of a fan.
Tihamer and Boris for god’s sake stop behaving like kids.
What do you both guy know about soccer? Why you people talking about Maradona’s personal life while you should
talk about his playing career.Man grow up mentally and know what you are talking about the soccer God ” MARADONA”. Will
you ever think a holy man can glorify himself to such an extent that he will be talked in the same bracket as that of
the Almighty.No never and it is a sin to think about it also. No one I say No one can ever come half a way towards Maradona’s greatness.He is the only Soccer god and the
greatest individual to have born on this planet.
Show some respect to Diego as he deserves it the most.Yeah pele, Didi,
Zidane,Puskas,Yeysin are the best of all but Maradona is the
teacher to all of them.He is even a good human being as he
respects his parents and siblings the most.So to me he is the universal.I hope now you guys will stop crying about
the greatest as I think you understood the criteria to be
the best.
Please people dez no need for asking who is the greatest footballer. .Not that i like Dihno but the guy has all the unbelievable skills we all know what he did, is there any player who has his child hood soccer matches on tape. . no ! because Dihno was so good that they captured most of his child hood games on tape, without any questions Ronaldihno is the Soccer God, ryt nw hez not doing well but we all know what hez capable of, im sure u can ask dt 1 2 Salgado,Zidane was good, Ronaldihno is extremely Good !
My points
- Brazil league does not suck nowadays, think about it even if we sold all our best players dont you think an average brazilian is still better than a good brit. jk but you get the point
- the league was even better in pele’s time
- Current players can never be put in best ever discussions thats simply foolish
- i EXTREMELY AGREE with Amateur on his players playing in different eras theory… if pele had been born in like the 80’s with his -(equation)- natural ability + already good athletics + enhanced modern athletics + Learning currents techniques + watching modern game/players+ and brazil already being a soccer powerhouse = amazing!
- if a player is to be considered the best it is obvious he would have to play the – number 10/center attacking mid/brain of the team/playmaker and goalscorer position which is often especially in South America no. 10
-george best shouldn’t be in this conversation though i do consider him a great hardworking striker who would probably start on england’s century xi team
- zico garrincha jairzinho rivelino – replace- cruyff di sttefano puskas platini (respectively) any day
Have to have a laugh at the rage of the Maradonna lovers out there this guy was a drugs cheat FACT!
He was even offically caught when his cronies could no longer get away with taking his tests for him (one of his former friends confessed to this in a drunken rage lol)
Even the moderate writers on here forgive him for that, the people and government of his country brush the fact he was a drugs cheat his whole career under the carpet.
They invent crazy excuses for him in athletics a drug cheat is a shameful thing why not in football lol
Also the comments about the author’s British bias is a bit silly does that not also mean you are bias because you come from a different country? Oh no I forgot bias is only right when its YOUR BIAS! Honestly theres more intelligent things wrote on youtube lol
Not this old chestnut. As pointed out numerous times before, the balls, pitches, playing conditions, tackling and general level of professionalism and fitness make any comparisons between the pre-80s game and modern football decidedly ill-matched. I remember when the only people who could head a football were certifiable maniacs who lost half their brain cells upon full impact. Ronaldo would have been too scared to play against the Italian sides of the 70s and 80s. Had he done so, he probably would have ended up crippled. Even Maradona, who I rate as the best I personally ever saw, could not manage to make any impact whatsoever against Claudio Gentile. (Gentile, who would be banned today was nevertheless the most formidable man-marker of his day.)
I’ve got a library of over 300 classic World Cup, European and South American games. I’ve watched some of the games a dozen times. But despite a good working knowledge of the game and a lot of time spent watching great teams, I could only muster enough temerity to maybe tell you who was good or who was truly bad. Anything else would be just more myth-making.
The game has always been about contradictions and unpredictability. Players just as much as teams.
Pele is over-rated because he took part in three world cup winning campaigns surrounded by many players who were his equal and a defence that in ‘70 lacked any credibility whatsoever.(Gerson, Clodoaldo and Jairzinho were certainly better in ‘70.) Zico is massively under-rated because he took part in no successful world cup campaigns. Garrincha never had the worldwide media exposure of either. Is that really fair? Defenders like Rosato and Vogts are never mentioned in the same breath as Moore and Beckenbauer, who were certainly no better as contemporaries. Fulvio Collovati’s performance in the ‘82 World Cup Final is one of the greatest I have ever seen, yet Scirea gets all the plaudits. Bonhof barely gets a mention for his extraordinary performance in ‘74. Neeskens and Keizer were consistently better performers for Ajax at their peak than Cruijff or Krol ever were. Yet everyone remembers the moments of Cruijff brilliance. And hardly anyone nowadays remembers the Austrians and Hungarians of the 30s and 50s. Yep, nothing but contradictions. That’s football as they say…..
Interesting comment Stakh. But I want to add something about Gentile, who was a formidable defender as you say. In 1983 the Romanian Balaci made a fool of him in a Romania-Italy (qualifier for Euro 84). Balaci was a very clever (and very skillful) forward and he moved Gentile out of his zone during the whole game. With Gentile displaced from his natural zone he was an easy prey for Balaci´s skills. Finally Romania won the game by 1-0 and got the ticket to Euro 84. Italy, the world champions, were eliminated. Gentile admited after the game that he had been humiliated by Balaci. This performance is still very remembered in Romania because Gentile was seen as one of the best defenders in those years.
The thing with Balaci (he was very close to sign with teams like Milan or Bayern, but the communist regime didn´t let him go from Romania) is that he got a very serious knee injury few months later, due to a bad challenge made by a rival (this speaks about the football brutality at that time). It wasn´t easy for skillful players like him. His career got over due to that injury at the age of 27, and few weeks before the Euro 84. Still he´s considered a top5 player in Romanian football history. I wanted to share this story because is unknown out of Romania.
On topic…I think C.Ronaldo shouldn´t be compared with legends such as Pele, Maradona or Cruyff. He´s a good player, but those are gods of this sport. What has C.Ronaldo done in football to be compared with them?
Cristiano not in league of George Best, Maradona & Pele
,Messi could be.
Maradona good,Pele better and George Best
Number 46. When reading your post i subconsciously put on a ridiculous english accent as your narrator… i don’t know why…i hope you don’t sound like that
top three of all time based on ability not trophies imo:
maradona
zidane
cryuff
maradona is the greatest.. c.ronaldo said that too.. what crap are people talking about maradona wouldnt match ronaldo today.. maradona played in 80’s where quality football was at its best against awesome defence and counter attack.. maradona is god and the greatest and he faced the greatest.. maradona is greatest of all time
It is my opinion that Ronaldo (the “original” one) was the best striker. You cannot compare between positions. Maradona was more of an attacking midfielder/second striker – same with Maradona. Ronaldo of Brazil was undoubtedly the best striker.
Best.
You all forget Hagi! Among the best of the best!! Not too much advertising but better than Ronaldo and Best and close top Pele or Maradona:)..
Pele is Hagi of Brazil, and Maradona is Hagi of Argentina!
You are all silly.I think CR9 is the best of the best , and you compare him to any of the other players, just doesnt make sense.He is the most exicting players of all times . He is good to look at and watch is a pleasure.
THERE HAS NEVER BEEN OR WILL EVER BE ANYONE LIKE HIM. I dare the person who says WHAT HAS RONALDO DONE FOR SPORT, crazy people.