Perhaps debatable, but he was the first player I ever remember seeing as a kid and being just blown away by his talent.
His goal v England in the 86 world cup is amazing.
RIP.
Perhaps debatable, but he was the first player I ever remember seeing as a kid and being just blown away by his talent.
His goal v England in the 86 world cup is amazing.
RIP.
The one he scored five minutes later was belter too.
RIP to him, and I mean no disrespect by this, but Pele was the greatest of all time. Maradona is on the Mt. Rushmore along with Ronaldo and Messi
I used to think this. Then I grew up.Originally Posted by 3puppies
I think the players you think are the best ever are often linked to how old you are and who the stars were when you were growing up.
Maradona is the greatest ever for me. A proper iconic figure, the way he moved with the ball was just effortless. To do what he did time and time again whilst getting absolute lumps kicked out of him every week is ridiculous.
His flaws kind of added to his mystique.
Shame his life was relatively short but what a life.
Probably my favourite ever football photograph. Sums him up perfectly.
Yep. Just amazing. I think he is the most gifted player there has ever been.
He didn't have the longevity of Messi, Pele or Ronaldo but his peak was higher than them IMO.
Unless you saw them all regularly I don't see how you can really make this sort of judgement. I mean we are roughly the same age and outside of higlight compilations and extended highlights of a couple of very famous matches I've barely seen any of Maradona or Pele. Not a dig at you personally, I just don't really think it's possible to compare without having experienced their career in some sort of depth. My only actual memory of Maradona as a footballer was him screaming like a madman into the camera at USA '94.
I think the players you think are the best ever are often linked to how old you are and who the stars were when you were growing up.
Maradona is the greatest ever for me. A proper iconic figure, the way he moved with the ball was just effortless. To do what he did time and time again whilst getting absolute lumps kicked out of him every week is ridiculous.
His flaws kind of added to his mystique.
Shame his life was relatively short but what a life.
Probably my favourite ever football photograph. Sums him up perfectly.
https://www.theguardian.com/football...m-famous-photo
Love that that photo's reality is so different than what you think ha
Oh yeah, just a great use of the camera angle but it works so well.
https://www.theguardian.com/football...m-famous-photo
Love that that photo's reality is so different than what you think ha
I'm a bit older than you Simon - I do just about remember the 86 world cup and I remember 90 very well, so Maradona was the first great player I was aware of so to speak. Fair point on Pele, I guess just from what I have seen of him he didn't have the natural talent of Maradona.
Ah ok for some reason I thought you were a couple of years older.
My perception of Pele is that he was comparatively limited compared to the likes of Messi, Ronaldo and Maradona, he was just an absolute goal monster. But again, no idea if that is accurate.
Any cunt who makes up his own goal tally and sticks with a Brazilian team for his entire career can fuck off being included in any discussion of the best ever when we have Maradona, Messi and Ronaldo now as legitimate monsters in their own right. I'd put Pele on the level of Beckenbauer, Cruyff etc on the rung below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4fzeK3SQa4
Pele is kind of boring too. His most interesting thing away from the pitch was that he couldn't get an erection. Well he said others cant but never actually mentioned himself...
Obviously one of the greats but lacks the iconic status of a Maradona, Beckenbaur or Cruyff.
I suppose he has a wrestling move named after him, that's kind of cool I guess.
In my lifetime I reckon it's...
1. Leo Messi
2. Real Ronaldo
3. Cristiano Ronaldo
4. Thierry Henry
5. Ronaldinho
Honourable mentions to Zidane, Iniesta, Buffon, Schmeichel, Cafu, Keane, Dani Alves and Nesta.
My 5
1. Maradona
2. Messi
3. Fat Ronaldo
4. C Ronaldo
5. Henry
So much of fat Ronaldo for me are the injuries so I can’t remember as well his dominant years.
For me it’s just
Messi
C Ronaldo
At the top because of how long they’ve been dominant.
Fat Ronaldo at Barca (96/97?) was probably his best year. Go and look at some of his goals on youtube from then. Just frightening - this was before his knee problems, so he had pace as well as his fantastic movement and finishing.
I always thought Ronaldinho was slightly overrated. In his position thought that Rivaldo and Zidane both had more end product, whereas Ronaldinho whilst exceptionally talented showboated too much.
It's just Ronaldo btw. Cristiano is the one that needs differentiated.
Also I think if you talked purely about the highest performance level a player reached rather than looking at consistency over their career, Bale and Suarez would be up there. Although neither would be in my top 5 of all time even in the Premier League let alone the world, I think they have had the best two individual seasons ahead of anything Shearer, Henry or Ronaldo managed. Suarez did it again for Barca too.
I didn't just mean Ronaldo had one good season though. The one I mentioned was just the best one.
Maradona's a fascinating, romantic character and I love the documentaries (the recent Asif Kapadia one, the Emir Kusturica one and even the Netflix series about his time managing in Mexico) and highlights I've seen of him but I'm too young to have actually watched him consistently. I think Simon's is a good top 5 for players from my lifetime. Not sure about the order. Messi is top though and I'd probably be tempted to have Ronaldinho higher than he should be. Not sure there's a player I've enjoyed watching as much as him when he was on top of the world, even if his peak was relatively short. On Pelé, obviously he played much longer ago so there's less people around who actually watched him regularly and most of those people are probably Brazilian or at least not European. Even amongst Brazilians I'm not sure there's a unanimous agreement that he was the greatest though. I remember hearing some old experts who preferred Garrincha.
Romario > Pele
Maradona is comfortably top for me and my lifetime however the likes of Messi and Ronaldo (less so) take a bit of a hit for me as they are not part of my "magical era" for want of a better term.
Maybe it's just an age thing but I find it with most sports these days, the iconic figures are not there for me, sportsmen are a bit robotic these days, I always feel like everything feels manufactured now. The world has changed though, people see these players every single week now and can go on Youtube whenever they want, seeing Maradona was an event for me as a kid, you saw him once every four years and you may get a sighting of him on like Transworld Sport or Sgorio on S4C if you could manage to tune in to it that week.
There is a difference between best and favourite players too that is hard to draw the line on. As I was a defender growing up I looked to the likes of Matthias Sammer, Franco Baresi, Ronald Koeman etc as the best. Of course I also had my Eastern Bloc favourites too... Boniek, Stoichkov, Hagi, Savicevic etc. You also have your homer picks...I would genuinely have Neville Southall in my top 10 of my lifetime because he was brilliant for us. Just a shame Wales could never make a tournament with him in the side in his prime. Him and Lineker are probably the only two genuine world class players I have seen play for us (at the time of playing for us).
Shouldn’t he be Romford Maradona and not Romford Pele at this rate?
Sorry going Donald there. On the serious tip, probably a bit younger than some myself and not watched his stuff the likes of Romford and MMH but do definitely respect the fact he is a legend. RIP.
Romford Kuntz
I bow to you!
Romford Maradona was taken. Nah seriously, its a nickname for Arsenal cult hero/legend Ray Parlour.Shouldn’t he be Romford Maradona and not Romford Pele at this rate?
Sorry going Donald there. On the serious tip, probably a bit younger than some myself and not watched his stuff the likes of Romford and MMH but do definitely respect the fact he is a legend. RIP.
you cut me brah
I don't know a lot about football players, some names that come to mind are Roberto Baggio, Carlos Valderama, Alexi Lalas, Roberto Donadoni, Pele, Wayne Rooney, Mr. Posh Spice (can't recall his name at the moment), and Bergkamp (Not sure his first name).
I'm sure there are others if I really thought about it, but I can safely say I do not remember the name Diego Maradona. I am going to watch YouTube videos so I can better enhance my football knowledge.
I always think of Maradona as the greatest of all time but I think a lot of that is due to it always feeling like a privilege to see him play as when he was at his peak football was barely shown here. We just saw snippets on football focus or saint and greavesie and the odd game on a dodgy signal from Rediffusion.
I have seen clips of Pele at his peak too and while he had talent in have never understood why he is so revered as I don't think he stands out more then the rest of a very good Brazil team.
Maradona in 86 made it go down in history as Argentina being a one man team despite there being some very good players in that squad. He did the same with Napoli as he is seen as the reason they won the title then.
The only player I have seen come close to him is the real Ronaldo.
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