Pele has passed away

[totaalvoetbal]

Menotti was not the only one, a lot of Argentine legends said that Pele was better than Maradona. I remember seeing an interview with Hugo Gatti where he said Pele was better.

I didn't want to include Gatti because a lot of people still feel that he was bitter against Maradona's success. He called Maradona a "fatty" that could never score against him if I remember correctly. This was a long time ago.

As I've said before, I kicked about the ball in Stadion De Meer in the 60s and 70s [The old Ajax Stadium], I cannot explain to the youngsters how hard it was to play constructive football back then and how hard it was to attack and control the ball relative to today. Everything today is geared towards attacking football.

 

[horsechoker]

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[Andrade]

I didn't want to include Gatti because a lot of people still feel that he was bitter against Maradona's success. He called Maradona a "fatty" that could never score against him if I remember correctly. This was a long time ago.



As I've said before, I kicked about the ball in Stadion De Meer in the 60s and 70s [The old Ajax Stadium], I cannot explain to the youngsters how hard it was to play constructive football back then and how hard it was to attack and control the ball relative to today. Everything today is geared towards attacking football.

Ah, Gatti is maybe a bad example but there are many others who said the same thing IIRC. I think Bochini was of that opinion as well, but he could perhaps be accused of bitterness as well, what with him being the young Maradona's idol and Maradona going on to surpass him.

 

[UTD_Since_1978]

Sad news, I've only just found out.

 

[Gio]

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This is pretty fecking cool.

Aside from his innovation in pretty much every facet of attacking play, what also jumps out to me are the left-footed free-kick and the left-footed bicycle kick. Now it could be because the video is inverted, but the genius of the man had no bounds so it would not surprise me that he could do both to a high level on his weaker foot. I can only think of a handful of players of all time who could take a proper free-kick off either foot - and it looks like he's doing that to navigate a run-up on a waterlogged pitch - and I've only ever seen one player execute an overhead kick off his weaker side. Not just innovating for the generations that have followed since, but doing things that 60 years later are still basically unseen at the top level.

 

[Stack]

A quick personal story of Pele.
No I didnt meet him.
Back in 2000 I was doing work for NZs first pro football club and a NZ football star called Wynton Rufer was player manager. Wynton had played for Werder Bremen in the 90s and is the Oceania player of the century for 1900 to 2000. I mention that because most wont know who Wynton is.
There was a guy called Albert who was the kit man for the team. Everyone loved him, did everything he could to help the players etc and just an all round great guy. It was coming up to Alberts 50th birthday and Wynton asked if I could photoshop Pele's autograph onto a photo of Pele and get a large print done for his Alberts birthday, I said I could. Wynton right in front of me proceeded to phone Pele. I swear this is what happened. I know it was Pele as I could hear him on the speaker phone. Pele answered and the two had a chat sharing greetings etc like old mates. Wynton then asked Pele if he could write a note on some paper to Albert and send it to him. About a week or so later Wynton handed me an A4 envelope with the message to Albert from Pele which I was able to photoshop onto a large print of Pele when he had just scored a goal.
I had completely forgotten about this until last night. Life can be pretty surreal at times.
Pele wasnt just a superstar.

 

[calodo2003]

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[FrankFoot]

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Man, most of those kicks are straight red card in modern football, some of them even could be suspension for a couple of games easily.

Nowadays refs are giving away yellow cards as soon as the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Robben, Benzema, Lewandowski, Modric, Haaland, Suarez, De Bruyne, etc are touched.

Modern players don't realize how easy they have it with kicks and fouls.

 

[Pintu]

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This is not entirely accurate... In 66 the referees could send players off, but they didn't use the cards, which created a famous misunderstanding when Argentina's captain (Rattin) was sent off in the 1/4 finals against England.. But it is true a lot more was tolerated. Pelé was basically battered and injured deliberately by his opponents, because they knew they'd get away with it.

 

[calodo2003]

This is not entirely accurate... In 66 the referees could send players off, but they didn't use the cards, which created a famous misunderstanding when Argentina's captain (Rattin) was sent off in the 1/4 finals against England.. But it is true a lot more was tolerated. Pelé was basically battered and injured deliberately by his opponents, because they knew they'd get away with it.

Thanks for the clarification!