RIP Pele (p9)

My family moved from Denton to Sheffield the week Santos played Sheffield Wednesday in a friendly.

There was nobody in school except me and a few disgruntled teachers!

Great player and man although I think Maradona was the best ever player.
 
What a magical player,cemented my love of football at 8 years old watching the World Cup late at night,desperate for a replica Brazil kit,a legend and true ambassador for the beautiful game.
 
the greatest for me I know folk go on about Messi and the poster boy but would either have them survived being kicked out of the game like they did to Pele and Maradonna ?????? Imagine both of them being allowed the protection they get in the modern game ............
 
AliBobbyJ said:
BBC (America) world news just gave their entire half hour to Pele, including an interview with Dennis Tueart talking about how he took over from him at NY Cosmos (and on his 70th birthday getting a personal video message from Pele himself.) And then some journo who got to know Pele in 1966 while the Brazil team was staying at a "less than 5 star hotel in Lytham" as he put it.
It brought back a memory of seeing a young Brazil fan standing by the side of the East Lancs Road trying to hitch a ride to L'pool for one of their W.C. games at Goodison that year. Almost the only words we could find together were "Pele" and "Garrincha" but the lad was dead excited at the thought of seeing his countrymen play. So when a car stopped to give him a lift he ran to where it had stopped and jumped in, leaving his bag by the side of the road as they sped off. Somewhere around St. Helens he might have noticed he'd gone without it but when it was still there that night we turned it in to the Lancs constabulary who found it was full of bright yellow t-shirts and Brazilian footie magazines. Often wondered what became of the lad, hope he at least got in to see Pele in action.
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Just checked the NYT website. Good to see that they've reported it properly, with deep respect. How about other American media outlets, ABJ? I know that America continues to remain largely impervious to the men's game — alone in that respect among major nations in the world. Actually, not quite. India remains pretty indifferent to it, too.
Mind you, I'm utterly impervious to American football, and frankly indifferent to baseball. Saw hockey (ice hockey, as so called in Europe) in Montréal, Stanley Cup playoff match between the Canadiens, locally known as the “Habs”, and NY Rangers. That was pure adrenalin. Extraordinary atmosphere. There was some good banter, with a little bit of needle in it, between the locals and the few Americans who were there. But then, hockey is much more Canadian, European, and Russian, than American really.
 
I was three and half when my parents took me to see Santos in a friendly, it was 1969. Pele was their captain. but unfortunately I don't remember anything from that game. The best thing I remember about him was a documentary made in late 70s (I think), he is teaching some kids the basics of football. I always smile remembering him teaching them how to head the ball and explaining why Brazilian players were so poor, they were heading the ball with closed eyes obviously. :) :) :) So every time Jesus headed another Kev's perfect pass past the post, there was Pele's voice in my head "I told you so!"
 
jrb said:
Nobody can.

But given all the advances in football on the pitch to date, if Pele was playing now, he‘d probably be the best player in the World. He was doing everything then on the pitch that the very best players in the world are doing now on the pitch. Forget Neymar, Ronaldo and Mbappe. Only Maradona and Messi come close to Pele. Yes, you need a team around you, but every team has a stand out and star player. Pele, a World Cup winner 3 times!
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Totally agree.
eastmanc said:
Great player but whether he was better than
Messi or Maradona is a very subjective thing . To me he was behind both of them but still an amazing player. RIP.
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Absolutely.
 
cleavers said:
I just don't see how you can compare them, the only comparison is they were footballers, but 1960/70's compared to 2010/20's, it's a totally different game, and I'm lucky enough to have watched the change.
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Yeah

That’s why I feel “best” and “greatest” are two different things

Like Ali, he’s considered the greatest, but a lot of boxing people wouldn’t say he was actually “the best” boxer per se. But his overall impact on the sport, pushing it to new levels, changing the way how boxers were perceived, self promotion etc etc. the overall package made him iconic and the greatest. There’s boxing before Ali and boxing after Ali. He changed the game completely

I view Pele as something similar. You can’t really compare era’s. There’s so many different factors involved in determining who is “the best”, skill for skill, especially with the differences in each era. But greatness is more than that. It’s the whole package, the impact etc etc and that’s why it’s hard to look past Pele.
 
Seen a lot of media over the last 12 hours saying he was the greatest ever but I don't like that

It's all very subjective because The Messi fanboys and the Ronaldo and Maradona fanboys are saying they were the greatest.

The fact is we'll never know.

Could Messi play in the 60's or 70's on dogshit pitches with no protection from refs?

Could Pele play now with the high press and train to elite levels of fitness?

We'll never know. What we do know is that Pele WAS one of the greatest footballers of all time and was also the first truly global football superstar.

For me that's how he should be remembered
 
Santos & Pele played twice at Hillsbrough in 1962 & 1972 with the latter having a 2.30pm midweek kick off due to the miners strike it was fair to say that a lot of classrooms in Sheffield were emptier that day as kids bunked off school.
kippaxwarrior said:
Seen a lot of media over the last 12 hours saying he was the greatest ever but I don't like that

It's all very subjective because The Messi fanboys and the Ronaldo and Maradona fanboys are saying they were the greatest.

The fact is we'll never know.

Could Messi play in the 60's or 70's on dogshit pitches with no protection from refs?

Could Pele play now with the high press and train to elite levels of fitness?

We'll never know. What we do know is that Pele WAS one of the greatest footballers of all time and was also the first truly global football superstar.

For me that's how he should be remembered
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I agree about the greatest ever being subjective and for similar reasons you have mentioned.

On the way home from our game last night Talksport were playing a 1 hour program about his life that had been pre-recorded.

Danny Kelly mentioned that prior to Pele signing for NY Cosmos you could take a light aircraft and fly coast to coast in the States and not see a football pitch, within 5 years of him going to the NASL 1000's of pitches had sprung up in every town. city etc.

This was the pull of Pele
 

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Unquestionably one of the greatest footballers ever and a sporting icon who can be grouped with the likes of Ali and Jordan.

I'm old enough to have some vivid memories of the 1970 World Cup and the incredible Brazil side that he starred in at that tournament. I still regard that as the best international team I have seen.

R.I.P.
 
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