| ghettoglamour said: Has anyone of you actually seen Pele or Maradona. I don't know why you claim they're the best...I'm not saying the aren't (or weren't), but you're not saying your own opinion but the expert's and analyst's one. |
I have seen Maradona - well, good parts of his Italian and international career on TV at least. He was an incredible asshole at times, and he was incredibly brilliant most of the time. He polarized like no other player. One of the few players in football history who was able to lift a mediocre team above the rest in a strong league for a few years (S.S.C. Napoli) and his national team above all others when it matters. I've only seen glimpses of the not so important late years of Pelé (Cosmos NY) and Beckenbauer (Cosmos NY, Hamburger SV), undoubtful two of the best players ever, but not at the time when I saw them on TV.
My ranking of best players of which I've been able to follow most of their club and international careers:
Maradona, Michel Platini, Xavi, Lothar Matthäus, Zinedine Zidane, Paolo Maldini, Marco van Basten.
Lionel Messi is one of the best players I've ever seen and he wins title after title with Barcelona, but as long as he hasn't won a title with his national team, he's Argentina's Johan Cruyff or Zico* - one of the best players of his time, among the best players of all time, national and international club titles and honors galore, but unfortunate with his national team. Messi still has plenty of time though.
*Zico and Sócrates (RIP) are my most favorite Brazilian players ever (of those I've seen when they were active and at the peak of their careers, i.e. not counting Pelé or Garrincha). I still wished the Brazilian team led by those two had won the World Championship 1982.
