Greatest players of all time

[Unregistered]

Easy to claim Champion's league failure when his team could not play in a strictly European tournament. Those guys didn't pose much competition in the World Cup.

[Unregistered]

Bottom line is if I had to pick a player to be on a team today at his greatest then Messi would be miles ahead of the Hand of the Devil Maradona.

If I had to take a player, I would probably also pick Messi. I'd probably pick MOST modern players because athletes have gotten better, the game faster, etc,etc,etc. That's why its so hard to compare players from different era's.

Which is why its not a big deal if Messi is left behind Pele (or not).
I'm also a baseball fan. Barry Bonds (even without the PED's) is a waaay better player than Babe Ruth. But Ruth is the GOAT because of his impact during his era.
Records will always be broken. So stats shouldn't be the deciding factor.
Technology gets better. So players shouldn't be judged against each other apples-to-apples.

So that leaves us with impact. Pele was the most impactful player of his era......by far.

Maradona was hugely impactful during the 80's. I'm not saying Messi is not. He definitely IS. But is it really an insult to say Pele is the GOAT and Messi a close second (or third in my opinion).

[Unregistered]

Well neither Pele or Maradona have ever won an Champions League...I would say Messi stays ahead of these two

The government of Brazil declared Pelé an "official national treasure" to prevent him from being transferred out of the country and played his entire 19 year career in Brazil, South America for Santos, and then after he retired and was well out of his prime he played for the NY Cosmos. Because of that fact it was impossible for Pele to ever win a Champions League Cup.
1958 World Cup Champion and Silver Ball Winner at the age of 17, the Golden Ball winner was his teammate and legendary midfielder Didi. In the 1970 World Cup Pele was such a dominant playmaker, winning the Golden Ball for the tornament, for the Brazil World Cup Champions that Burgnich, who marked Pelé during the final, was quoted saying "I told myself before the game, he's made of skin and bones just like everyone else — but I was wrong." Messi hasn't delivered on the largest stage. Messi is not a Pele or a Ruth.

[Unregistered]

If I had to take a player, I would probably also pick Messi. I'd probably pick MOST modern players because athletes have gotten better, the game faster, etc,etc,etc. That's why its so hard to compare players from different era's.

Which is why its not a big deal if Messi is left behind Pele (or not).
I'm also a baseball fan. Barry Bonds (even without the PED's) is a waaay better player than Babe Ruth. But Ruth is the GOAT because of his impact during his era.
Records will always be broken. So stats shouldn't be the deciding factor.
Technology gets better. So players shouldn't be judged against each other apples-to-apples.

So that leaves us with impact. Pele was the most impactful player of his era......by far.

Maradona was hugely impactful during the 80's. I'm not saying Messi is not. He definitely IS. But is it really an insult to say Pele is the GOAT and Messi a close second (or third in my opinion).

"I'm also a baseball fan. Barry Bonds (even without the PED's) is a waaay better player than Babe Ruth. But Ruth is the GOAT because of his impact during his era."

Talk to me when Barry Bonds pitches and is a multiple 20 game winner, has a career record of 94-46 and a career ERA of 2.28.

[Unregistered]

"I'm also a baseball fan. Barry Bonds (even without the PED's) is a waaay better player than Babe Ruth. But Ruth is the GOAT because of his impact during his era."

Talk to me when Barry Bonds pitches and is a multiple 20 game winner, has a career record of 94-46 and a career ERA of 2.28.

Are you just picking out whatever sentence you want at an attempt at trolling? LOL

I'm not following. I stated that Ruth is the GOAT. Technology and player fitness is what has made modern players better than Ruth. But Ruth will always be the GOAT. And to my point, the modern game doesn't allow for field players to pitch as well. Pitching in the early 1900's was somewhat common.

So again, not sure what your argument was. I agree Ruth is the GOAT.......in baseball.

Lets get back to football (the real football).

[Unregistered]

Are you just picking out whatever sentence you want at an attempt at trolling? LOL

I'm not following. I stated that Ruth is the GOAT. Technology and player fitness is what has made modern players better than Ruth. But Ruth will always be the GOAT. And to my point, the modern game doesn't allow for field players to pitch as well. Pitching in the early 1900's was somewhat common.

So again, not sure what your argument was. I agree Ruth is the GOAT.......in baseball.

Lets get back to football (the real football).

I am not trolling. I hate Barry Bonds. It's that pure and simple. Because I hate everything that Balco Barry stands for I will tear apart his legacy whenever I can. Barry Bonds is a choke artist. His postseason performance with the Pirates illustrates how when the lights were brightest he was atrocious. The greatest don't choke like Bonds did in the postseason at the plate and in the field. He might have won Gold Gloves, but his arm and fielding were so inferior that the Pirates moved him to left and placed Van Slyke in center. Left field is the position for your weakest arm in the outfield. Ken Griffey, Jr. was a vastly superior baseball player than Barry Bonds in fielding and hitting, and The Kid did it clean. Barry Bonds arm was so weak he could not throw out Slow as Molasses Sid Bream at home who scored from second base in Game 7 of the NLCS. If you gave me a choice between Bonds and Jeter, I take Jeter everyday of the week and twice on Sunday. Jester's speed, glove, arm, bat and his clutch play are superior to Bonds. Five rings beats zero. Homers aren't everything. I'll take Jeter's postseason .304 average over Barry's .240 average. Pointing out that Babe Ruth was a God of a baseball player because he was not only a dominant pitcher as well as a dominant field player who took performance reducing drugs on a regular basis as he routinely showed up drunk to play and stil hit home runs out of ballparks that were 500 or 600 feet to the fences. What Ruth did would be the soccer eqivalent of Messi being a dominant goalie and field player. By the way, I love soccer as well as baseball and am the person who posted why it was impossible for Pele to win a Champions Cup.

[Unregistered]

Are you just picking out whatever sentence you want at an attempt at trolling? LOL

I'm not following. I stated that Ruth is the GOAT. Technology and player fitness is what has made modern players better than Ruth. But Ruth will always be the GOAT. And to my point, the modern game doesn't allow for field players to pitch as well. Pitching in the early 1900's was somewhat common.

So again, not sure what your argument was. I agree Ruth is the GOAT.......in baseball.

Lets get back to football (the real football).

There is no rule in Major League Baseball that states a field player can't pitch and vice versa. Whitey Herzog was famous for using his pitchers as outfielders. The baseball reference guide puts Non pitchers who pitched as a category and the number of those players who you and I would classify as true pitchers, at least 20 games, is very small. You are correct in the fact that those very select few, which did include Ruth, mostly took place in the 1900's.

[Unregistered]

Hey guys OP here. As a coincidence my two daughters play soccer and son is a baseball player and I love both sports as well. Babe Ruth and Pele may or at not have the best stats of all time but there is something about their impact on the game, influence on their sport and loved by the people that makes them GOAT
If you go by greatest hitter as an example then is Ted Williams
Greatest soccer striker maybe Gerd Muller etc
Messi is a
great player probably best of his generation but he did not transcend the game like Pele.

[Unregistered]

Is Messi the best defender at Barcelona?

[Unregistered]

Well neither Pele or Maradona have ever won an Champions League...I would say Messi stays ahead of these two

You are not very clever..enough of this Messi crap

Pele never played in Europe and Maradona played for most of his European career for Napoli...Maradona won a world cup by himself in Mexico

Messi just lost a Copa final with an absolutely stacked time as he did last year and the World cup final before. I think he is awesome but lets not get carried away as I could make the case that Maradona was a better player than Pele.

[Unregistered]

You are not very clever..enough of this Messi crap

Pele never played in Europe and Maradona played for most of his European career for Napoli...Maradona won a world cup by himself in Mexico

Messi just lost a Copa final with an absolutely stacked time as he did last year and the World cup final before. I think he is awesome but lets not get carried away as I could make the case that Maradona was a better player than Pele.

I never saw Pele play but I agree that Maradona was a better player than Messi.

[Unregistered]

I never saw Pele play but I agree that Maradona was a better player than Messi.

Incredible to think that 2 of the 3 best players ever came from a country of 40 million..spoiled.. from an envious European

[Unregistered]

Have to vote for Pele. In 1983 he came to our high school in CT because our coach was his personal friend. At the time I did not realize who he was I just knew he was a former Cosmo. The most impressive thing he did was dribble from end line to end line we all 30 of the Varsity and JV players on the field. No one every got close to the ball and he was 45.

If you have never seen him play here is a highlight real.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QEmnP48PEc

Too bad we did not have the video equipment back then we have today.