Am i the only one who thinks Pele is an "over-rated" legend?

Question

i have seen a lot of his videos, and compared to Maradona,Zidane, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and all those players, he is nothing special! he used to be a good goal scorer, but wasn't a TOP CLASS player!

People i am not saying is isn't one of the best in the world! to me this is the order
1-Maradona 2- Zidane 3- Ronaldo 4- Pele!
i think he is one of the top 4 in the history of the game, just not the best ever!

Pele was a player with a natural goal scoring talent, he was a goal scorer! he was a good dribbler and very fast and powerful, but his " footwork" and his technique weren't like Maradona's or Zidane's!

and during his time defenders weren't as solid and good as the defenders now-a-days! the defenders have improved a lot with time! i am pretty sure if he can play with his skills at our time now there is no way he would be as good as great as he was at his time!

Answer 1

I wouldn't say that he is overrated, he was above the average when he was playing football, but the problem is that in his time defenders weren't that good, if you watched some of his videos, you can notice that defenders ( and other players as well) are falling down like a 10 years old kids, I doubt that he could score that many goals against Stam, Maldini, Terry or even average defenders of today's football!!!! The second thing is that in his time, only in WC player could became a legend, maybe there was some other player that was better than him but he wasn't in the WC ( for example, like Eto'o in WC 2006) or didn't perform well in those few games ( for example Ronaldinho) so because of the fact that WC was ONLY place to become a legend, we will never know if he was really the best in his time!!!!! It's impossible to say who is the best player in last 15 years, because there were so many great players that were the best in club or international level, but 40 years ago it was only one best player... Pele, because he was winner of three WCs!!!!!

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To all people that said that Pele scored more than 1000 goals, well first of all he is not the only player that scored that many goals and second he scored those goals against teams that where on level of today's San Marino!!!! If Pele is the best because he scored so many goals, then what is 16 years old Bojan Krkic who scored over 500 hundred goals already........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bojan_Krkic

.... Maradona is the best player of all time, but only because he was drug addict, FIFA don't want to give him the credit that he deserve!!!!!!!!


btw: I posted a Q ''Who is better Pele or Maradona'' few months ago and the winner was Maradona.......... you can ask everyone here!!!!!!! :)))))))))

Answer 2

There is some truth to what you say. Who is or isn't a "legend" just comes down to one's definition of the word. Is Mark a legend? Maybe, maybe not. He has done what he does very well and for a very, very long time. But he hasn't won a championship or a 500. (Nascar did steal a championship from him in the early 90's) I don't consider Jr overrated b/c I don't really hear people highly rating him. He may become a "legend" for if nothing else, his incredible popularity. I think Jr is a slighty better than average driver and that's about what I see other people describing him as.

Answer 3

Now more than ever I have to agree with Andygurl!!!!! Pele deserves every accolade he ever received and I would rate him much higher than Maradona, Zidane, Ronaldinho and especially Ronaldo. He was a magnificent player to watch and he is a magnificent human being.

Answer 4

He wasn't a top class player!? Guy, are you serious? Football was different then but those players set the standards for football. And it still lasts to this day. No other player can top that. That's why today's players can't be compared to people like Pele (for Brazil) and Maradona (for Argentina). Even if someone could repeat that (which I doubt), they certainly couldn't surpass their performances AND achievement.

Answer 5

First off you don't compare either of these 3 to a legend ( Zidane, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo ). They they are good but have yet to reach legedary status.

Pele scored 5 goals in a game six times, 4 goals 30 times and 3 goals 90 times and he did this against the world best!! He also has won 3 World Cups and has scored a lifetime "1,120" goals.
Zidane, Ronaldinho, and Ronaldo could play 3 full careers each and could not match that total combined.

I'm not sure what videos of Pele you saw but I would suggest a lot more viewing before posting a remark like this.
What a joke.

Answer 6

That's a tad offensive to such a great player. Look Maradona was done for doping, so really how many times did he not get caught, how many times were his performances his own , how many were drug enhanced. No offense to him, my point is we should enjoy and acknowledge what they have given the game, not always pick them apart. Maybe defenders in those times were not as developed as they are today, but then again if you take someone like Pele, with natural ability and afford him all the technical benefits, training, equipment etc that players have today, who knows what could further have been achieved. If Pele were born today with all the modern advantages he would be fearful to face. Our legends are legends because they have all earned their place. We should be grateful for them all.

Addition: Kasper you cannot take a player from 50 yrs ago and pop them into today's game. We can't just assume they would be no better with developed benefits. Put it this way, if players of today were born 40 to 50 yrs ago, they'd not have had the advances and benefits they have today. I doubt they would be as good without them and half of them wouldn't cut the mustard with these fellows. They played raw hard football with nothing more than natural talent at their disposal.

Answer 7

I would just like to inform everyone of the following.

Some of the very best soccer players in the world have been interviewed and they were asked who was the greatest player ever. These are their replies.

Zidane - "Pele" was the best ever.
Baggio - "Pele" whom I mimicked as a child.
Ronaldinho - "Pele" is my idol inspiration. He sits proudly on soccer's highest thrown for all eternity. I only dream of being that good.
Ronaldo - "Pele" he is the game itself. To bad God only made one of him.
Maradona himself stated Pele was a notch above me just about all of the time. He was phenomenal.

It's funny how you placed him 4th best when soccer's elite says that he is the best ever from their very own mouth.

Now that soccer's best has spoken what do you think of your opinion now?

Should I take their words for it? Or entertain your opinion of him being the 4th best player? You tell me what you would do.

Not a top class player? The guy was the force behind 3 of Brazil's World Cups. He was elite amongst soccer's very best.
That's what makes him the best ever.


That was real petty of you to give me the thumbs down for telling the truth. "Be a man a deal with it".

No way real soccer fans are going to let you get away with a insulting statement like that.

You might as well close this question because things won't get any better now that people know the truth.

Peace!!

Answer 8

Maybe you haven't seen enough of Pele. He was a fantastic player. Speed, dribble, power, jump, he had it all. He was 1.70m tall but he could win a header from a 1.90m defender! But I will agree with you that the other players aren't bad either. Don't forget, Brazilians themselves regard Ronaldo to be the gratest talent of their country since Pele. Many have forgotten Pele, but I think he is slightly better than the other.
1. Pele 2. Maradona, Ronaldo 3. Zidane, Ronaldinho, Platini, Kruiff 4. Baggio, Romario, Rivaldo, Garrincha, Socrates, Bechenbauer ect... In my opinion, that's the right order...

Answer 9

No! Pele is not an overrated legend. It's obvious you have not done enough research on him or if you had you would have never posted this very sad comparison.

Maradona I can see possibly, but the others are young flashy talent who don't have a third of the history the great Pele does.

Feel free to remove this question at any time to avoid future embarrassment.

Answer 10

I have to agree with that. Soccer fans will not give other great players other than their own nationality their just due.

Germans think they have the 10 greatest players of all-time. They don't even mention Pele nor Maradona.

You really need to look up what Pele did before you post a comment like this. His stats are soooo much better than the guys you are trying to compare him to.

Answer 11

its not that Pele sucks its just that the video quality sucks. i mean u cant expect video from the 60s 2 b HD quality can u now?