Hiku said:
I know, but I don't think there are any other notable players to mention around that time. When Santos played other European teams, those were friendly matches, iirc. I wouldn't even bet on Barcelona to beat Manchester United in a friendly pre-season match today. But if they play in the CL, my money is on Barca, easy. |
You can be skeptical all you want. It doesn't change the fact that it was. Just take a look at the Libertadores back then, the South American teams used to play with substitutes, because the greatest players used to play in national leagues. They didn't care a bit about international championships that how weak they were. Juventus(a 3rd division team from São Paulo at that time) had a match in the 60's against it's Italian cousin and it won 4-0. This is how ridiculously stronger the South American teams were back then, specially the Brazilian ones.
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@topic
Pelé was 17 when he won his first world cup, and if you say that's not impressive, it's okay. Now try thinking that he played with 40ºc fever at least 3 matches, only entered in 2nd halves of the games(all of them) and was the top scorer of the tournament. At 17. Pelé was an overkill player at his days. Today maybe he would just be a great striker, but back then, he was totally overkill. That's why he won a freakin' crown in Mexico 1970. That's why he still is recognized as the King of Football, and the best player ever to this day. He played 4 WC, won 3. Not just that, but in 1970, he played as a midfielder.
I'm 37, I've seen a lot of Maradona playing and Messi in my opinion is better than Maradona. They have the same style, but Messi is faster and more accurate. Messi is magic and IMHO he doesn't need to won any major tournament to be compared to the greatests. My TOP 5 would definitely have Messi in it. Messi is just amazing and I can't stress that enough. CR7 is amazing too, but in the matter of "Ronaldo", there was only one worth mentioning and he scored a hat-trick against MU at the Old Trafford and carried a national team on his back in 1998, although there are a lot of controversy about that WC final.