Greatest player of all time?

[Spike Mandela]

This BBC article is asking the question is Pele the best player of all time? It compares his achievements against modern day heroes like Messi and Ronaldo and many of the other greats including my favourite Cruyff. Reading this though I am struck by the stats of Puskas, oh my god what a player he must have been.

Who do you think is greatest of all time?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54543144

[Tambo]

Where is George Best?

[MWHIBBIES]

Messi

[Spike Mandela]

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Where is George Best?

In the pub

[MWHIBBIES]

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Where is George Best?

A tier below Messi, Ronaldo, Pele, Maradona etc.

[calumhibee1]

Messi with Cristiano Ronaldo a close-ish second.

[Bishop Hibee]

Pelé. Even his near misses are legendary.

[Since452]

Cristiano Ronaldo

[MWHIBBIES]

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Messi with Cristiano Ronaldo a close-ish second.

This is where I'm at. When it comes to those 2 it's very close, but I think both are a good bit ahead of 3rd, all things considered.

[Since452]

If it wasn't for injuries then Brazilian Ronaldo would have been very close to the best ever

[MWHIBBIES]

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If it wasn't for injuries then Brazilian Ronaldo would have been very close to the best ever

Agree with this. His record at a young age is unreal.

[BILLYHIBS]

Edson Arantes do Nascimento

[makaveli1875]

since everyones naming forwards il buck the trend with Paolo Maldini

[Juice-Terry]

Maradona - easily.

[ajf]

[QUOTE=maradona ! In an era where there were hatchet men round every corner he produced the goods

[Irish_Steve]

Maradona good, Pelé better, George Best. All you need to know

[StevieT]

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Edson Arantes do Nascimento

Agree wholeheartedly Billy. My all time football hero. Let’s not forget that back then players never received the protection they get these days and a full on assault was only a free kick and not even a caution. Look at the treatment he received in his early World Cups compared to nowadays. Some of the current crop are excellent but they are well protected.

[O'Rourke3]

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Agree wholeheartedly Billy. My all time football hero. Let’s not forget that back then players never received the protection they get these days and a full on assault was only a free kick and not even a caution. Look at the treatment he received in his early World Cups compared to nowadays. Some of the current crop are excellent but they are well protected.

Pele by a mile. Check the treatment he got from Portugal in England in 66. Up there with the worst The Argentinians ever dished out.

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[Cat Stanton]

Your view is likely to be influenced by your age. I suspect people who say Messi is the best may be slightly younger than those say Maradona - who in turn may be slightly younger than those who say Pelé. Because it's about who you've been most exposed to (er, so to speak) when growing up.

There's a frustrating lack of coverage of when Pelé was at his peak (so I find it hard to judge) whereas in my late teens, I watched mesmerised as Maradona effectively won a World Cup single-handedly. He did something similar with Napoli - taking a thoroughly mediocre team to league championships and European trophies. Messi's obviously an amazing player, but he's also been in teams surrounded by other great players, and having seen both him and Maradona at their peak, I would go for Maradona. If you're younger and haven't seen so much of Maradona, you'd probably go for Messi.

Personally, I wouldn't put Cristiano Ronaldo in the same bracket. But I'm also a bit blinkered as I've always found him such an arrogant arse - but I accept that's quite a different issue and shouldn't cloud my judgement...

(cue new thread: who was the greatest arrogant arse of all time..?)

[Pagan Hibernia]

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Your view is likely to be influenced by your age. I suspect people who say Messi is the best may be slightly younger than those say Maradona - who in turn may be slightly younger than those who say Pelé. Because it's about who you've been most exposed to (er, so to speak) when growing up.

There's a frustrating lack of coverage of when Pelé was at his peak (so I find it hard to judge) whereas in my late teens, I watched mesmerised as Maradona effectively won a World Cup single-handedly. He did something similar with Napoli - taking a thoroughly mediocre team to league championships and European trophies. Messi's obviously an amazing player, but he's also been in teams surrounded by other great players, and having seen both him and Maradona at their peak, I would go for Maradona. If you're younger and haven't seen so much of Maradona, you'd probably go for Messi.

Personally, I wouldn't put Cristiano Ronaldo in the same bracket. But I'm also a bit blinkered as I've always found him such an arrogant arse - but I accept that's quite a different issue and shouldn't cloud my judgement...

(cue new thread: who was the greatest arrogant arse of all time..?)

Clough.

[Mick O'Rourke]

PELE
PUSKAS




At Hibernian?
'
Not having seen Gordon Smith in his prime .......

Willie Hamilton

Puskas is supposed to have said (after that great night at ER)that Willie would not have looked out of place in the Real Madrid side

[heretoday]

Eusebio

[Keith_M]

This is a question that it's genuinely impossible to answer.

• Nobody here could possibly have watched every player that ever played football, so how can you really say who's the best 'of all time'?
• Football has changed drastically over the decades, especially when it come to things like fitness, so it's impossible to give a fair judgment between the extremely fit players of now compared to the ones that relied more on their skill from decades ago.
• People tend to choose a player from the era that they enjoyed the most.

But feel free to crack on about Messi and one of the Ronaldos ;-)

[Spike Mandela]

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PELE
PUSKAS




At Hibernian?
'
Not having seen Gordon Smith in his prime .......

Willie Hamilton

Puskas is supposed to have said (after that great night at ER)that Willie would not have looked out of place in the Real Madrid side

Love quotes like this

[Dan Sarf]

Did Pele, Maradona or Ronaldo win the Scottish League with three different clubs? No, they did not.

Game over.

[Pagan Hibernia]

The greatest ever debates are pointless and tiresome. When you get to that class of player where the word genius can literally be applied then how can you separate them? Do you go for World Cup wins? Not really fair when George Best played for Northern Ireland and Messi has done literally everything but win one. Do you go for pure statistics like goals and assists? Again, how can you compare La Liga in the 2010s with the English first division in the 1960s? It’s a completely different game now.

if you put Maradona in Messi’s Barcelona team could he have done the same things? Could Messi have won the 86 World Cup for Argentina? Could George Best have taken Napoli to the heights they reached in the late 80s? Could pele have got Northern Ireland to a World Cup?

no one will ever know.

[Keith_M]

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The greatest ever debates are pointless and tiresome. When you get to that class of player where the word genius can literally be applied then how can you separate them? Do you go for World Cup wins? Not really fair when George Best played for Northern Ireland and Messi has done literally everything but win one. Do you go for pure statistics like goals and assists? Again, how can you compare La Liga in the 2010s with the English first division in the 1960s? It’s a completely different game now.

if you put Maradona in Messi’s Barcelona team could he have done the same things? Could Messi have won the 86 World Cup for Argentina? Could George Best have taken Napoli to the heights they reached in the late 80s? Could pele have got Northern Ireland to a World Cup?

no one will ever know.

My grandad used to insist that Barney Battles (played for Boston then Hearts) was the best player ever.

Seeing as the guy retired in 1936.. and none of his games were ever televised... I'd love to see anybody successfully argue that he wasn't

[Keith_M]

p.s. It was Maradona!

[Mick O'Rourke]

Best goalie in my younger days was universally agreed as Lev Yashin of the USSR (now liquidated !!)
The man in black


We had a song mentioning Lev back in the old days in The Cave (FF)

Aye aye aye aye

Wilson(Willie) is better than Yashin

McBride is better than Eusebio

And Stevie (Eric Stevenson) is better than anyone !!

[Northernhibee]

Lewis Stevenson.

Has won more Scottish cups and league cups than Pelé, C. Ronaldo, Messi, Best, Ronaldo and Maldini combined.