Best Soccer player of all time?

samprasvsfederer123

samprasvsfederer123

Banned
Diego armando Maradona

is he really the best of all time? or atleast tied with pele?

now i don't see soccer too much so i don't know much of its history but can you tell me the things he achieved because i being a spanish speaker have heard the name atleast 10,000 times and ive seen polls, analysts and even a world wide fifa poll ranking him as the greatest of all time, atleast on par with pele, so

is he really the best of all time?
 
Dilettante

Dilettante

Hall of Fame
Maradona is for me, yes.

Pele is somewhere up there too. But Maradona just played in tougher conditions, more defensive era (much tougher defenders than in Pele's days and even than today's), and he was the core of good-but-not-the-best teams and achieved great things with them.

And technically, I've seen stuff from Maradona that never came up from another player. His resources were of an almost infinitely wide range. He was more fast-thinking and less error prone than any other player I've seen, including Pele. In many aspects of his game, as an individual player and as a field team-maker and game director, he did almost everything right. He was the best dribbler and everything, but also the most reliable passer, the most intelligent assistant... he seemed to be always half a second in advance than the rest of players.

Talentwise he was just unmatched. People used to pay a ticket just for watching him practice before the match (not to say for watching him play the actual match!!). He was THAT good. And if you knew what is difficult to do when playing football, you had to be in perpetual awe with him.

As I said Pele is of a similar magnitude, but honestly I think Maradona proved himself in much tougher conditions. Football history needed Pele to play in Spain or Italy leagues, but never happened. I know Pele did two great World cups, but also did Maradona and Diego was being part of not as good overall teams as Pele's (1958 and 1970 Brazilian teams were just the freakin' top collection of talents of their respective eras; 1986 and 1990 Argentina teams were good but nothing near that, aside from Maradona).

My two cents.
 
Feña14

Feña14

G.O.A.T.
Maradona's achievement of pretty much single handedly (literally!) winning a World Cup on his own is something very special.

Hopefully the two great players at the moment in Ronaldo and Messi can throw their names into the hat by the time they retire.
 
Last edited:
pabletion

pabletion

Hall of Fame
Feña14 said:
Maradonna's achievement of pretty much single handedly (literally!) winning a World Cup on his own is something very special.

Hopefully the two great players at the moment in Ronaldo and Messi can throw their names into the hat by the time they retire.
Click to expand...

they'll most certainly need a World Cup title to put their names near Maradona, dont you think?

although, Messi has won more than Maradona, club-wise. What if he has a very good WC2010?
 
Feña14

Feña14

G.O.A.T.
pabletion said:
they'll most certainly need a World Cup title to put their names near Maradona, dont you think?

although, Messi has won more than Maradona, club-wise. What if he has a very good WC2010?
Click to expand...

It's funny, if Messi manages to win this World Cup with Maradona in charge of the side, that's probably an even bigger achievement! :)
 
ManuGinobili

ManuGinobili

Hall of Fame
Eric Cantona

He kungfu kicked a hooligan

So what if others can score goals too, Cantona knew how to celebrate like the CHAMP he is

He threw out a meaningless saying and the media took it as one of the greatest quote ever... that's effortlessness

HE started the pop the collar culture
 
pabletion

pabletion

Hall of Fame
Feña14 said:
It's funny, if Messi manages to win this World Cup with Maradona in charge of the side, that's probably an even bigger achievement! :)
Click to expand...

oh youre absolutely right! i forgot about that for a sec. Talk about an ego boost for Maradona if he can claim he won as a player and as a coach... Im not looking forward to that, but its very possible.
 
TMCW140

TMCW140

Hall of Fame
^^^Best striker ever, no doubt
Wow, this is worryingly similar to the GOAT arguments, and completely subjective but oh well.
Alfredo De Stefano anyone?
 
statto

statto

Professional
George Best. Never played in a World Cup because his national team was useless, but the guy was out of this world. He played a beautiful game at a time when players in the English league were given no protection from being butchered by defenders (check out youtube for the goal he scores despite having his leg amputated by Chopper Harris).

Pele says Best was the greatest player he ever saw.

I'd put Maradonna as #2.
 
N

NickC

Professional
I don't know about overall player, but for me Ronaldo was a real talent. That man could flat out score, easily the best out-and-out striker of all time. You got the ball to him inside the box and it was all over.
 
D

dropshot winner

Hall of Fame
ronalditop said:
Ronaldo Nazario da Lima. I think if he didn't get injured in 1998, he would've been the best of all time.
Click to expand...

I agree, he had the potential to be the best. The portuguese Ronaldo can't compare.

It's unbelievable how much he achieved with his injuries. His knees make Nadal's look like the healthiest of all time.
 
bcart1991

bcart1991

Professional
statto said:
George Best. Never played in a World Cup because his national team was useless, but the guy was out of this world. He played a beautiful game at a time when players in the English league were given no protection from being butchered by defenders (check out youtube for the goal he scores despite having his leg amputated by Chopper Harris).

Pele says Best was the greatest player he ever saw.
Click to expand...

I'd say Best as well. When Pele calls you the best he's ever seen, that's something worth noting.

Maradona will always be scarred in my eyes because of the Hand of God incident. Great player, but not the best ever.
 
Dilettante

Dilettante

Hall of Fame
Honestly, George Best, Ronaldo, Zidane, etc, were great. I'm a Best fan and the great year of Ronaldo in Barcelona as a striker was amazing (Romario anyone? George Weah? Van Basten? There have been some amazing strikers out there in more or less recent times).

But I'm amazed anyone considers the idea of a football GOAT that is nor Pele neither Maradona.

For me there is a gap between those two and the rest. Both were just too talented and too complete both in individual skills and in teamplay skills. Maradona is the clear #1 for me, bur I'd understand someone having Pele as #1. But, other than that? Not really.
 
statto

statto

Professional
Dilettante said:
I'm amazed anyone considers the idea of a football GOAT that is nor Pele neither Maradona.
Click to expand...

By that logic Pele and Maradonna should regard each other as the GOAT.

Forgot to mention about Best that one of his team mates said that he was so versatile and so good, that in the European Cup winning Man Utd team, he could have replaced any of the other players in their position (with the exception of goalkeeper) and the team would not have suffered.

My argument against Maradonna would be the 1986 World Cup Final. He carried his team single-handedly to the final, but go watch the final and look at what he does: squat. The reason is that the German's gave their best player (Matteus) the job of marking Maradonna out the game, and that's exactly what he did. If you're GOAT then no-one reduces your effectiveness to zero.
 
Dilettante

Dilettante

Hall of Fame
statto said:
By that logic Pele and Maradonna should regard each other as the GOAT.
Click to expand...

That's not logic at all. They are human and can regard as GOAT anyone they want to, not to say they're not comfortable regarding the othe rone as GOAT and never been.

If you're GOAT then no-one reduces your effectiveness to zero.
Click to expand...

Look buddie, are you joking? I wouldn't call assisting the definitive goal with a GREAT pass while being surrounded by several german players "having effectiveness reduced to zero".

Maybe you'll want to check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeleVz86uKI
 
F

forthegame

Hall of Fame
I'll go with a shortlist......

Ronaldo (the original, not the girl)

Romario

Zidane

Stoichkov

Yekini

Then of course - Maradona, Pele etc..
 
statto

statto

Professional
Dilettante said:
That's not logic at all. They are human and can regard as GOAT anyone they want to, not to say they're not comfortable regarding the othe rone as GOAT and never been.
Click to expand...

You said you were amazed that anyone would name anyone other than Pele or Maradonna. Given that both players know way more about football than either of us (and assuming they're humble enough not to name themselves) that reduces their options to one. Except it doesn't.

Pele is over-rated anyway. IMO he's not even the best Brazilian footballer ever (that would be Garrincha).
 
billnepill

billnepill

Hall of Fame
The OP's location is not Federer's mind, but America. No one says soccer around here :)

The greatest of all time - it's between Pele and Maradona.

One of the most impressive players was Garincha.
 
ericsson

ericsson

Hall of Fame
Dilettante said:
Maradona is for me, yes.

Pele is somewhere up there too. But Maradona just played in tougher conditions, more defensive era (much tougher defenders than in Pele's days and even than today's), and he was the core of good-but-not-the-best teams and achieved great things with them.

And technically, I've seen stuff from Maradona that never came up from another player. His resources were of an almost infinitely wide range. He was more fast-thinking and less error prone than any other player I've seen, including Pele. In many aspects of his game, as an individual player and as a field team-maker and game director, he did almost everything right. He was the best dribbler and everything, but also the most reliable passer, the most intelligent assistant... he seemed to be always half a second in advance than the rest of players.

Talentwise he was just unmatched. People used to pay a ticket just for watching him practice before the match (not to say for watching him play the actual match!!). He was THAT good. And if you knew what is difficult to do when playing football, you had to be in perpetual awe with him.

As I said Pele is of a similar magnitude, but honestly I think Maradona proved himself in much tougher conditions. Football history needed Pele to play in Spain or Italy leagues, but never happened. I know Pele did two great World cups, but also did Maradona and Diego was being part of not as good overall teams as Pele's (1958 and 1970 Brazilian teams were just the freakin' top collection of talents of their respective eras; 1986 and 1990 Argentina teams were good but nothing near that, aside from Maradona).

My two cents.
Click to expand...

Completely agree here!
Maradona is the one, although comparing is hard i know, but the man had it all, he could litterly dance with the ball, what a talent!
Very sad he ended up with the wrong people and has become an ego tripper...
 
pabletion

pabletion

Hall of Fame
its a shame (for us) that Ronaldinho likes to party as hard as he does, cause he might be the most gifted player out there, he could do whatever he wanted with his feet, like they were another pair of hands. The two-three years he was on top of his game, it was just ridiculous.

But.... it seems that these days brazilian players are good for only two years or so, then party first, footbal later........
 
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