Rank Maradona, Messi, Pele and Ronaldo

[giorno]

Well you have to put someone from this era as number 1 for the reasons I've mentioned. Fair point regarding Messi but if you put Pele or Maradona into todays football they would struggle a lot.

Pelé would be a top 10 player in the world today. He was futuristic for his era in a way that's probably never going to be repeated, and i'm not sure how many people actually appreciate that. In a way, you could say Pelé was so great because he was a 2000s athlete playing in the 60s. He was the equivalent to football of Usain Bolt to sprinting

And he is the best player ever looked at it from an empirical perspective. Pace, speed, IQ, technical skill, strenght, aerial prowess, strong foot, weak foot, vision, passing, playmaking, scoring, etc. On a scale of 1 to 10, he was a 10 at everything. He also was the best big game player of the bunch, he basically never had a poor big game on his career that he wasn't injured in or through. His domination of the 1970 World Cup, playing for that Brazil, at 29 and thinking of retirement, and still visibly being so far above everybody else he might as well be playing a completely different sport - and this is something pretty much all of his contemporaries said whenever they were asked about him, or to compare him to X player - brace in the WC semifinal, brace on the WC at 17 years old in 1958...his record against european sides, his record in the libertadores...Messi and Maradona have blemishes on their CVs. Pelé does not.

Having said that, to declare the best between Pelé, Maradona and Messi is impossible and frankly pointless. For me, Maradona is the one closest to my heart, and I think the level he reached at Mexico '86 is the highest anyone had ever played at, given it was a world cup and everything. So for me Maradona comes first, always. Then Pelé and Messi

Cristiano was never at their level

 

[goatmeister]

Inter's Ronaldobwas the most similar player to Pele, stylistically.
A number 9.5 kind of player.
Messi was similar player to Maradona, a quintessential number 10
By the way Zico was doing the Maradona and Messi before they were cool.

Where do I put them?
Pele > Maradona ~ Messi > Ronaldo da Lima.

At his peak, Ronaldo was at Pele's level but that was so short-lived due to injuries.
That game with Batigol against European XI was stuck in my memory, simply unplayable.
Subbed off early to not embarrassed the opponent further.

There are so many players to place in the list before Cristiano can even feature.

 

[antohan]

Pelé, Maradona and Messi is a game of musical chairs for me at this stage. Impact on the game? Top peak? Overall career and achievements? I keep rearranging them.

Next tier: Puskas, Di Stéfano, Beckenbauer, Müller, Cruyff, Zico, Platini, Ronaldo, PRonaldo

 

[Chesterlestreet]

Pelé, Maradona and Messi is a game of musical chairs for me at this stage. Impact on the game? Top peak? Overall career and achievements? I keep rearranging them.

Next tier: Puskas, Di Stéfano, Beckenbauer, Müller, Cruyff, Zico, Platini, Ronaldo, PRonaldo

Yeah, I don't wildly disagree with this.

You can look at it from a number of angles, of course.

But for me Di Stéfano, Cryuff and (especially, I would say) Beckenbauer stand out for me in that second group.

I would perhaps argue that Beckenbauer belongs in a tier of his own - but that would make the rest of them "third tier" players, which just seems wrong.

As for ranking the top trio, I agree, it's pretty much impossible.

I've said before that if you put a gun to my head, I'd say Pelé. Still would, I guess.

 

[Righteous Steps]

Pelé would be a top 10 player in the world today. He was futuristic for his era in a way that's probably never going to be repeated, and i'm not sure how many people actually appreciate that. In a way, you could say Pelé was so great because he was a 2000s athlete playing in the 60s. He was the equivalent to football of Usain Bolt to sprinting

And he is the best player ever looked at it from an empirical perspective. Pace, speed, IQ, technical skill, strenght, aerial prowess, strong foot, weak foot, vision, passing, playmaking, scoring, etc. On a scale of 1 to 10, he was a 10 at everything. He also was the best big game player of the bunch, he basically never had a poor big game on his career that he wasn't injured in or through. His domination of the 1970 World Cup, playing for that Brazil, at 29 and thinking of retirement, and still visibly being so far above everybody else he might as well be playing a completely different sport - and this is something pretty much all of his contemporaries said whenever they were asked about him, or to compare him to X player - brace in the WC semifinal, brace on the WC at 17 years old in 1958...his record against european sides, his record in the libertadores...Messi and Maradona have blemishes on their CVs. Pelé does not.

Having said that, to declare the best between Pelé, Maradona and Messi is impossible and frankly pointless. For me, Maradona is the one closest to my heart, and I think the level he reached at Mexico '86 is the highest anyone had ever played at, given it was a world cup and everything. So for me Maradona comes first, always. Then Pelé and Messi

Cristiano was never at their level

Great post.

 

[Righteous Steps]

Slim margins between…

Pele
Messi
Ronaldo
Maradona

Not that this what was asked, but I have Beckenbauer fifth. Obviously not the goal scorer those four were, but Beckenbauer was astonishing in the range of his game. Without any question, he’s the most complete footballer of all time. But in the end it’s Pele v Messi and it can go either way but Pele shades it.

There is no slim margin between Pele Messi Ronaldo, there’s a sizeable margin between those two and Ronaldo.

 

[Bosnian_fan]

Pelé would be a top 10 player in the world today. He was futuristic for his era in a way that's probably never going to be repeated, and i'm not sure how many people actually appreciate that. In a way, you could say Pelé was so great because he was a 2000s athlete playing in the 60s. He was the equivalent to football of Usain Bolt to sprinting

And he is the best player ever looked at it from an empirical perspective. Pace, speed, IQ, technical skill, strenght, aerial prowess, strong foot, weak foot, vision, passing, playmaking, scoring, etc. On a scale of 1 to 10, he was a 10 at everything. He also was the best big game player of the bunch, he basically never had a poor big game on his career that he wasn't injured in or through. His domination of the 1970 World Cup, playing for that Brazil, at 29 and thinking of retirement, and still visibly being so far above everybody else he might as well be playing a completely different sport - and this is something pretty much all of his contemporaries said whenever they were asked about him, or to compare him to X player - brace in the WC semifinal, brace on the WC at 17 years old in 1958...his record against european sides, his record in the libertadores...Messi and Maradona have blemishes on their CVs. Pelé does not.

Having said that, to declare the best between Pelé, Maradona and Messi is impossible and frankly pointless. For me, Maradona is the one closest to my heart, and I think the level he reached at Mexico '86 is the highest anyone had ever played at, given it was a world cup and everything. So for me Maradona comes first, always. Then Pelé and Messi

Cristiano was never at their level

Great post giorno. Also it's pointless to me to try and rationalize any of the three given choices, when everyone is going to pick the one closest to their heart, and try to find arguments why their opinion would be more valid than the others.

For me it's Pele, Messi and Maradona, in that order, but I've never seen Maradona and Pele, I wasn't their contemporary, and no matter how much you study them you can't grasp what they meant in their era.

 

[wangyu]

We should rather be talking about brackets. Who belongs in the God tier brackets both in terms of cultural relevance, skill an achievements? Anybody saying Pele doesn't belong in the God tier knows nothing about football.

There are quite a few players in there imo. Apart from the big 3 there is definitely a place for Cruyff, Zico, Platini, Zidane, the Ronaldo's, Best, Ronaldinho, Garrincha, Beckenbauer etc

My father is adamant Messi is the greatest of all time and he claims he saw Pele play but he is just overrreacting. He was barely 14 at the World Cup in 1970 I reckon that is the only time he saw him on tv.

 

[OverratedOpinion]

Messi > Pele > Ronaldo > Maradona

That is my opinion with the precursor that it is kind of a ridiculous question based on how different football was in different eras.

If you took a 27 year old Ronaldo and put him in Pele's era I think he would outshine him by an absolute mile due to being so much drastically fitter, decades ahead in tactics and a huge number of other metrics. With that said I think if you put Pele in this era with the knowledge we have about sports science, nutrition, tactical know how, better playing conditions ect. He would be better. All complete speculation though.

Messi is the best and I think he is the best by such a distance that I actually don't even have any interest in debating it.

Maradona or R9 are the closest to Messi in talent in my opinion but I think both are a reasonable amount behind him in natural talent and a significant amount behind him in professionalism and consistency.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Great post giorno. Also it's pointless to me to try and rationalize any of the three given choices, when everyone is going to pick the one closest to their heart, and try to find arguments why their opinion would be more valid than the others.

For me it's Pele, Messi and Maradona, in that order, but I've never seen Maradona and Pele, I wasn't their contemporary, and no matter how much you study them you can't grasp what they meant in their era.

That is why it's pointless. People are just proclaiming a supposedly meaningful and strong view (not you) about things they know nothing about.

 

[RedRonaldo]

Funny just not long ago (2-3 years back) when Ronaldo won everything and everyone loves him (except haters), he was at the top of the largest internet poll to date (nearly 500k poll), and even getting more votes on GOAT over the likes of Messi, Pele and Maradona.

Now that he is old and out of favour and becomes a cnut whom everyone hates, he is not even in top 4-7 among many people list here.

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

The good old times of Ronaldo.

But no seriously, objectively speaking, he should still among top 4, because 5 Ballon D'ors and 800+ goals plus all his all time records out there, should guarantee his place among top 4, or as one of GOAT in any sports, even though he is fast becoming an intolerable cnut to most.

 

[Righteous Steps]

Funny just not long ago (2-3 years back) when Ronaldo won everything and everyone loves him (except haters), he was at the top of the largest internet poll to date (nearly 500k poll), and even getting more votes on GOAT over the likes of Messi, Pele and Maradona.

Now that he is old and out of favour and becomes a cnut whom everyone hates, he is not even in top 4-7 among many people list here.

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

The good old times of Ronaldo.

But no seriously, objectively speaking, he should still among top 4, because 5 Ballon D'ors and 800+ goals plus all his all time records out there, should guarantee his place among top 4, or as one of GOAT in any sports, even though he is fast becoming an intolerable cnut to most.

It shouldn’t guarantee anything, Di Setefano and Puskas had comparable stats and a lot of people put them out of their top 4.

 

[mu4c_20le]

It shouldn’t guarantee anything, Di Setefano and Puskas had comparable stats and a lot of people put them out of their top 4.

Di Stefano has only 2 balon d'ors and Puskas none. They weren't comparable.

 

[Gazza]

Funny just not long ago (2-3 years back) when Ronaldo won everything and everyone loves him (except haters), he was at the top of the largest internet poll to date (nearly 500k poll), and even getting more votes on GOAT over the likes of Messi, Pele and Maradona.

Now that he is old and out of favour and becomes a cnut whom everyone hates, he is not even in top 4-7 among many people list here.

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

The good old times of Ronaldo.

But no seriously, objectively speaking, he should still among top 4, because 5 Ballon D'ors and 800+ goals plus all his all time records out there, should guarantee his place among top 4, or as one of GOAT in any sports, even though he is fast becoming an intolerable cnut to most.

An adult wrote this sentence!

 

[Lay]

Di Stefano has only 2 balon d'ors and Puskas none. They weren't comparable.

Di Stefano is the only recipient of the Super Ballon d'Or though

 

[Righteous Steps]

Di Stefano has only 2 balon d'ors and Puskas none. They weren't comparable.

Pele has none, who really cares? When it comes to this level we’re not judging the players on who has the more ballon d’ors.

 

[totaalvoetbal]

Di Stefano has only 2 balon d'ors and Puskas none. They weren't comparable.

Yes they were. Kubala back then was actually rated higher before the European Cup emerged and Barcelona foolishly turned down representing Spain in it before Real Madrid took their place. It's weird talking to younger people that have no clue of some of these older players circumstances. The Puskas that Real Madrid got was not even in his prime and was overweight. Please go and read what happened to Puskas, Hungary and the USSR before making such dumb statements.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Yes they were. Kubala back then was actually rated higher before the European Cup emerged and Barcelona foolishly turned down representing Spain in it before Real Madrid took their place. It's weird talking to younger people that have no clue of some of these older players circumstances. The Puskas that Real Madrid got was not even in his prime and was overweight. Please go and read what happened to Puskas, Hungary and the USSR before making such dumb statements.

Calm down, just pointing out why he's usually not listed.

 

[antohan]

for me Di Stéfano, Cryuff and (especially, I would say) Beckenbauer stand out for me in that second group.

I would perhaps argue that Beckenbauer belongs in a tier of his own - but that would make the rest of them "third tier" players, which just seems wrong.

I did feel the same as I wrote that, so much so that I skipped the likes of Zidane and Ronaldinho as the gap there was even more obvious to me.

The biggest problem with creating that intermediate tier is you will never hear the end of it from third-tier PRonaldo groupies.

 

[antohan]

Di Stefano has only 2 balon d'ors and Puskas none. They weren't comparable.

One of the best stories ever told over a pint of beer

“I was with (Bobby) Charlton, (Denis) Law and Puskas, we were coaching in a football academy in Australia. The youngsters we were coaching did not respect him, including making fun of his weight and age.

"We decided to let the guys challenge a coach to hit the crossbar 10 times in a row, obviously they picked the old fat one.

"Law asked the kids how many they thought the old fat coach would get out of 10. Most said less than five. I said 10.

"The old fat coach stepped up and hit nine in a row. For the tenth shot he scooped the ball in the air, bounced it off both shoulders and his head, then flicked it over with his heel and cannoned the ball off the crossbar on the volley.

"They all stood in silence then one kid asked who he was, I replied, 'To you, his name is Mr. Puskas.'”

 

[mu4c_20le]

One of the best stories ever told over a pint of beer

Was it with his left or his right?

 

[antohan]

Was it with his left or his right?

Usually with his right, but he was ambidexterous and sometimes held two symultaneously.

 

[frostbite]

1. Pele
2. Messi
3. Ronaldo
4. Maradona

 

[dinostar77]

One of the best stories ever told over a pint of beer

Brilliant story

 

[dinostar77]

Pele has none, who really cares? When it comes to this level we’re not judging the players on who has the more ballon d’ors.

Pele and maradonna like all non europeans were illegible for balon dor until 1995. Seeing as south american league football was as strong as european football until the 1990s, and many sourh americans stayed on that continent to play their footy in their prime. Any balon dor pre 1995 has to be taken with a pinch of salt.

 

[Revan]

1. Messi
2. Pele
3. Maradona

4. Ronaldo

Messi and Pele were the greatest players of their generations, with unprecedented success in both club and international football. Messi ahead of Pele for me, cause football is much more quality now than back then (to the point that a teletransported peak player doesn’t make top 10 in current era). Maradona third cause a) Messi was better than him in most things, kind of an improved version of him and b) lack of club success relatively speaking.

Ronaldo a distinct fourth (although he was a better player than Pele and Maradona). Lack of international success, primarily

 

[IRELANDUNITED]

Imagine that front 4.

Messi - Maradona - CR7
Pele

 

[Pirlo'sBeard]

1. Messi
2. Maradona
3. C. Ronaldo

 

[Josh 76]

There will always be a debate about who the GOAT is.
Pele, Messi, Ronaldo.

But there is no debate about who is god.
Maradona!

 

[Castia]

What the feck

Suddenly half the forum loves Maradona and claims he's the greatest ever

 

[giorno]

If all 4 were born in the mid to late 80s, Pelé would be far above the other 3

 

[OrcaFat]

Pele
Maradona
Messi
Ronaldo

Messi is bloody brilliant but Pele and Maradona were too and played in times when it was more difficult for skilful players. Ronaldo’s reputation is suffering from playing on into decline and doing it without dignity; 20 years from now people may remember him at his peak and that will put him closer to the other three.

 

[Longlivekeano]

1. Maradona
2. Messi
3. Pele
4. Ronaldo

 

[Longlivekeano]

One of the best stories ever told over a pint of beer

Nice read. He should have said. His name is “Golden Arrow”

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

If all 4 were born in the mid to late 80s, Pelé would be far above the other 3

What makes you say that?

Not saying I disagree either.

 

[antohan]

Nice read. He should have said. His name is “Golden Arrow”

That's Di Stéfano though (if you mean la saeta rubia / blonde arrow).

 

[RedRonaldo]

An adult wrote this sentence!

Best you could ever do is to pick on the irrelevance.

 

[RedRonaldo]

It shouldn’t guarantee anything, Di Setefano and Puskas had comparable stats and a lot of people put them out of their top 4.

Clubs stats yes. But how about Ballon D’ors and international achievements? Huge huge difference. It’s no difference to say Muller should be in same tier because they both score alot of goals.

 

[giorno]

What makes you say that?

Not saying I disagree either.

Pelé would be Messi but faster. If you lifted him from '61 to today he'd be one of the fittest, fastest and most explosive players in the world, but not quite as physically dominant as back then, but also he was a genius and would have easily adapted. Thus, faster, two-footed, better Messi

 

[Righteous Steps]

Clubs stats yes. But how about Ballon D’ors and international achievements? Huge huge difference. It’s no difference to say Muller should be in same tier because they both score alot of goals.

Puskas scored 84 in 85 for Hungary, led his country to the World Cup final, and won the Olympics when it was far more we’ll regarded in international football, he actually had a better international career than CR7.