Pele's reputation/mystique overhyped

comment by StringerBell (U11749)
posted 15 hours, 29 minutes ago
If the ‘82 team had won, wouldn’t they have been hailed as the greatest Brazil team?
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Had Paulo Rossi not turned into Superman in that World Cup then Brazil would have won that competition. And if they had done then the Brazil 82 team would certainly have been remembered as being right up there I'm sure. Especially with great players like Zico, Socrates, Falcao etc.

Either way they'll always be the best Brazil team to never win a World Cup. Probably the best team from any other country as well never to win it although the Holland side of 74 probably give them a good run for that title.

No two ways about it Superb, the man was a footballing God.
Him and Careca at Napoli, woooweee! . Man the Italian league was on fire then. Though that ‘90 or was it ‘91 season with Sampdoria crashing the party!
Great memories.
Maradonas W/Cs have been a mixed bag.
Was a shame about ‘90 World Cup, Argies stank out the place.
Then ‘94, what can you say.
‘82 he was a head case. That sending off, today a man is going jail!
But he’ll always have ‘86. The Gold standard of individual brilliance
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with maradona we always have to allow for performance enhancing drugs. no one is lauding ben johnson but maradona was also a drug cheat

Didn't Maradona take drugs that made him worse?

If taking cocaine made you a better player then every coke head coming out of a nightclub at 3am charlied off their nut would suddenly be brilliant at football as well

ephedrine

If taking cocaine made you a better player then every coke head coming out of a nightclub at 3am charlied off their nut would suddenly be brilliant at football as well
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if you got one leg coke won't help.....if you're a so called elite athlete it may improve awareness reduce the effects of pain etc

And if at any point he had turned around and saw that Peter Reid was giving him a Police escort from the halfway line, and started laughing hysterically, then that would’ve been a tell tell sign for sure.

Maybe...😕

comment by Superb (U6486)
posted 1 day, 13 hours ago
Pele winning three World Cup medals is a great achievement but you have to consider he played in really good Brazil teams with players like Garrincha, Didi, Carlos Alberto, Rivelino, Tostao, Jairzinho, Gerson etc . Many consider Brazil 1970 to be the best international team ever if not the best team in the history of football.

Maradona pretty much single handedly won a Word Cup in an Argentina side that had no right winning it. Almost nobody can remember a single player from the Argentina side that won the World Cup in 86 apart from Maradona because it was filled with nothing special players that would never have won it in a million years without him.

Would Argentina have won the World Cup in 86 if they had prime Pele in their side instead of Maradona ? Personally I don't think they would have and that's no disrespect to Pele. I don't think any other player apart from Maradona could have taken that Argentina side all the way and in the manner he did.
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No player has so, consistently, made such a significant difference to the collective performance of those around him as Maradona did.

Football is a team game, and that is why he is easily the greatest of all time

🧐 Consistently you say?....
Ok, I’ll be your huckleberry, when you say consistently, are we talking Franco Baresi like?
Or Pele scoring, or the level the teams rose to, cos I believe Pele’s Brazil, (which ever’58, ‘62 ,70 would beat Maradonas Argies.
Or you mean just the general feel good factor he brought, that propelled the likes of Napoli to the titles?

But again, I go back to Baresi.

Id say that the likes of Gerson, Tostao, Jarzinho and Rivelino don't get the credit for Brazils success in the 1970 world cup as Pele recieves. In fact I'd say that stick Emile Heskey or Andy Cole then they would have scored goals and perhaps even scored the sitters Pele missed. France has Stephane Guivarch up front at the 1998 world cup and he didn't score at all but if he did score a few goals like one in the final then it wouldent have meant that Guivarch was more of an influence than Zidane or Djorkaeff. As Ive said previously..Pele does come across as an egomaniac and a narcissist. Jonathan Liew's article was honest and thought-provoking in the sense that it wanted the football public to wake up from the mass media induced Pele worshipping and idolising trance