The argument for the best footballer ever, unless you’re
Dutch and have a big retroactive man crush on Johan Cruyff, always resides in a
debate between Diego Maradona and Pele - otherwise known as Edison Arantes de
Nascimento, or as I like to call him, Crestfield’s King of the Kitchen
(Simpsons fans will get the reference – season 9 episode 5). When all the basic
facts are considered, there really is no debate at all and the result is a
strong desire to wear Napoli blue and grow a curly afro.
If you take Maradona and Pele’s statistics into account, the
argument for best ever can become a little clouded and misleading - almost as
if Darth Vader had his hand around your shoulder while reading this.
Throughout his career, Pele scored a total of 620 goals in
661 appearances at club level, or 0.94 goals a game. At the international level
for Brazil, Pele scored 77 goals in 92 games, or 0.84 goals a game. When
compared to Maradona’s own tallies, the results seem a little mediocre. For his
various clubs, Maradona managed 258 goals in 492 appearances (0.52 goals a
game) and only 34 goals for his footballing nation – Argentina – in 91 games
(0.37). In direct comparison, the
statistics are a little staggering, but to acquire a clear and unbiased picture
that is not influenced by simple and lifeless data, where these goals were
scored, how they were scored, and who they came from must also be
measured.
Pele soldiered out his career in Brazil, plying his trade
quite loyally with the same team for 18 years, wearing the black and white
prison stripes of Santos for nearly two decades.
With them he scored countless goals, won several accolades,
and took the Brazilian side to continental glory. From there he came out of
retirement for the bright lights of New York, and for the fierce competition of
the North American Soccer League – a league so successful it collapsed because
it was too awesome for anyone to witness. In all seriousness, it failed due to
financial inadequacy because nobody went to the games or cared, probably
because everyone was too busy dancing in discos or trying to find taller
platform shoes.
Maradona on the other hand moved to Europe quite early in
his professional career and experienced immense success in two of the most
competitive and talent-laden leagues of that time. Though he featured for
Barcelona for only two years and was riddled with injuries and various
conflicts involving club officials, opposing players, fans, and probably anyone
that was willing to listen to his crazy arguments and complaints, he still
managed 38 goals in 58 games and two titles.
He later joined Napoli (the southern Italian frontier where
driving becomes much more dangerous and life threatening and the hand gestures
get increasingly more erratic and emotive). While at Napoli, Maradona arguably
enjoyed the apex of his exploits, winning 4 competitions, which included
leading the Italian side to European triumph in the UEFA cup in 1989. During his
time there, he was a perennial offensive threat and dominant player in a league
most noted for its defensive and tactical prowess.
While nothing should be taken away from Pele, his
accomplishments came in a league that simply cannot be likened with the
competition of its European equivalents. While Brazilians are very good at
football, some would say the best in the world, their league does not offer the
same level of opposition as those of the European footballing elite. Essentially,
he played in a lesser competitive league, while the best of his discipline were
concentrated in the much more contested leagues of Europe. His opposing
defenders were easier to beat, his passes more likely to be successful, and his
goals easier to score.
Maradona matured and became the player he is remembered as,
in Spain and Italy where the competition was always fierce. There he quickly
pronounced himself as the best in the world amongst the best. In his prime,
there was no argument that he was the most dominant player on the planet, and
he did it against the elite – the best tacticians, the best defenders, the best
goalkeepers.
A classic argument in Pele’s favour, is that the Brazilian
won more world cups and scored more goals with his national side. While it’s
true that he won 3 world cups to Maradona’s 1, Pele was really only a part of
two of those. He was injured after the first game of one of those tournaments,
and did not return to play (1962 World Cup in Chile). Most importantly, Pele
was always surrounded with very strong teammates. Although he was a key figure
in Brazil’s World Cup victories, he did not do it alone. His cohorts also went
on to become legends and were some of the best in the world at that time.
Players like Garrincha, Vava, Didi, Rivelino, Jairzinho, etc. became household
names (as long as your household was somewhere in Sao Paulo, Rio, or anywhere
else in Brazil). The point is, he played exceptionally, but he had many
exceptional players to help him.
Maradona did not score as many goals for Argentina as Pele
did for Brazil. Neither did he win as many world cups. He did however, lead a
very weak team that was not expected for great things to the title. In 1986 in
Mexico, Diego Maradona cemented his place in history – a place in history he
would later tarnish with his rampant cocaine use and paranoid and aggressive
rants about penises at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa (see video here) – as a legend. Almost
single handedly, he captained a weak Argentinian squad to become champions of
the world, materializing into the most dominant player of the tournament with
mesmerizing performances and displays that the world still remembers today. He
even scored a goal with his hand and fooled everyone in the process. You had to
love his devil may care, nonchalant, bad boy attitude.
If it were Pele that
scored with his hands, he probably would have apologized to the referee, the
fans, the opposing team, and gone into the referees pocket and given himself a
red card. Nobody really likes that loyal, honest, commercially friendly, and
extremely marketable persona. People want to see a bad boy that says and does
the things they would never dare to do and eventually self implodes in a vicious
spiral of self destruction and ignorance brought on by a quick acquisition of
wealth, power, adoration, and an inflated ego. That alone makes him better than
Pele, but if that’s not enough, Maradona even managed to take a weaker
Argentina to the final again in the World Cup in Italy in 1990, only to lose by
a questionable penalty for West Germany in the final.
Thus, due to the superior competition he faced while
achieving great feats and leading mediocre Argentinian teams to the title and
final of successive World Cups with incredible exhibitions of football and
individual dominance, Maradona is undeniably the best footballer ever. It took
me more than a thousand words to say it. It took him 23, and with more elegance,
arrogance, and flair than I could ever manage:
“There would be no debate about who was the best footballer
the world had ever seen – me or Pele. Everyone would say me.”
-
Diego Maradona
Another one I quite enjoyed was:
“My mother thinks I am the best, and I was raised to always
believe what my mother says.”
-
Diego Maradona
Cleary this is the attitude, self-confidence, and candid
rhetoric, only the best can provide. Enough said.
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