Hoof the ball
Full Member
He definitely was. 100%. I've seen videos of him doing the Ronaldo chop back the very early 60's. Routinely nutmegging players. Remember that audacious move in WC '70 when he ran across the ball in order to run around the keeper and meet the ball the other side? Not an accident. I've seen videos where he's done it multiple times before.....and I haven't seen a single instance of another player doing it since. Pele wasn't just a CF. It's easy to not know, but but his defensive work was excellent. He'd drop back in DM, pick up the ball and he'd drop back and be the creator. Pele was so far ahead of his time in almost every facet it's unreal.All the greats will ! They will be probably better even now with all the sports science and the training regime there is now.
Even more the strikers as they are more protected now days.
People can say Pelé is not as talented as Messi or CR7 but in my eyes he is the greatest as he was the first football superstar and won 3 World Cup, scored 1000 goals and was the first one who tried to score some goals out of this world, even if it was failures. You just can't beat that.
It is easy to say, football is better now but non one should forget that back then it was harder for the players as well. They did not have as much care as now.
His 'no touch' skill
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