Big 3: Pele, Maradona, Cryuff

after seeing many clips of the 3 in the past 3 days.. i think maradona was the most gifted of the 3 with ball at his feet ,but i think the best was pele. iwas reading an article about pele.in essense it said that if we imagine a footballer with messi's dribbling and finishing,falcao's heading c.ronaldo's speed and 2-footedness,zlatan's shooting and aerial skills then the above footballer will be named pele.he was the ultimate attacker the most complete and the most successful.in pure ball control and passing may be maradona was better than him,but when combining all the aspects together there is only one guy who stands out.. pele the king of football

pele had messis dribbling? whoever wrote that article is not serious

by messi's dribbling i dont mean messi like dribbling style,i mean messi like abilty to go past 4 or 5 players regularly.if u watch the video pele etern i think u will agree with me.

In his career im sure he conjured up some great dribbles, but he wasnt at all the threat messi is at dribbling. Messi is rare in that his dribbling is always a threat throughout games, he can dribble out of so many situations its a joke, pele in comparison would have maybe 1, 2 or 3 impressive dribbles, then the rest of the game his dribbling wouldnt be a threat at all. This is something you will only get once you watch his matches, rather than highlights of his best moments. The only one ive seen who was close to messi in terms of always being able to dribble past players is maradona, but most of his dribbles just ended with defenders fouling him.

Diego Armando Maradona wrote:In his career im sure he conjured up some great dribbles, but he wasnt at all the threat messi is at dribbling. Messi is rare in that his dribbling is always a threat throughout games, he can dribble out of so many situations its a joke, pele in comparison would have maybe 1, 2 or 3 impressive dribbles, then the rest of the game his dribbling wouldnt be a threat at all. This is something you will only get once you watch his matches, rather than highlights of his best moments. The only one ive seen who was close to messi in terms of always being able to dribble past players is maradona, but most of his dribbles just ended with defenders fouling him.

wow u have seen pele live? then i am sorry for arguing with you.but what a lucky guy you are.

No not live, I have watched some of his games that are recorded on footage.

Diego Armando Maradona wrote:No not live, I have watched some of his games that are recorded on footage.

In other words, youtube clips.

I personally rank those 3 as the top 3 ever myself & I can never come up with a set order in which to place them, they were all different in style & stronger than each other in certain areas of the game, all 3 were absolute geniuses.

Pele was the better goalscorer & natural finisher of the 3... Maradona had the best instant control, pure technique & his freekicks were arguably the best ever... Cruyff was the most complete & had vision like no other player, could play anywhere on the field & be the best player.

I don`t see how anyone can say there is a clear gap between these players, there is a top tier for the absolute very best & those 3 inhabit that top tier, any placing in order of them is down solely to preference because neither of these 3 were better than the others IMO.

CrazyBoy wrote:Di Stefano was basically the superior version of Crujff, so I dont agree with your three.

No chance, Di Stefano was not a superior player to Cruyff, that`s ridiculous... the best you could give Di Stefano was he was on the same tier but he wasn`t a superior version.... Cruyff was a lot quicker, was a better crosser & was a better dribbler for starters... both were very complete players though, I`d rather have Cruyff in my team.

CrazyBoy wrote:Strikers:
1. Van Basten.
2. Romario.
3. Ronaldo.
4. Batistuta.
5. Shevchenko.

I agree, Van Basten was the best of the lot, phenomenal talent.

Ps. I might replace Shevchenko with Klinsmann personally but great list you have there I must admit.

CrazyBoy wrote:this is my all time wingers:
1. Garrincha
2. George Best
3. Matthews
4. Figo
5. Dzajic

I`m not being biased as a Celtic fan but Jimmy`Jinky`Johnstone should be on your list, I`ll admit I know little of Dzajic but Jinky was a far better winger than Figo & not inferior to your top 3... he was voted Celtic`s best ever player ahead of guys like Kenny Dalglish, Danny McGrain & Henrik Larsson, he was a fantastic little winger.

Dunno where to put this, here is as good as any I guess.

Don Carlo wrote:I agree, Van Basten was the best of the lot, phenomenal talent.

Ps. I might replace Shevchenko with Klinsmann personally but great list you have there I must admit.

ya Van Basten for me because I liked his style much, although I wont disagree if someone picks Romario or Ronaldo because both were out of the world strikers, with different style of play ofcourse. Although if I had to pick one striker ever for my team it would be Eusebio.

Don Carlo wrote:No chance, Di Stefano was not a superior player to Cruyff, that`s ridiculous... the best you could give Di Stefano was he was on the same tier but he wasn`t a superior version.... Cruyff was a lot quicker, was a better crosser & was a better dribbler for starters... both were very complete players though, I`d rather have Cruyff in my team.

Cruyff was more technical than Di Stefano but Di Stefano was a leader and performer that Cruyff never could be. Cruyff after Ajax and his first season in Barca became somewhat okayish, compared to his his sensational form when he was at Ajax.
Di Stefano on the other throughout his career performed with an equal intensity and success whether at Colombia or Argentina(there he was a second fiddle though to that great River Plate team of 40s) or Spain.


[quote="Don Carlo"]

CrazyBoy wrote:this is my all time wingers:
I`m not being biased as a Celtic fan but Jimmy`Jinky`Johnstone should be on your list, I`ll admit I know little of Dzajic but Jinky was a far better winger than Figo & not inferior to your top 3... he was voted Celtic`s best ever player ahead of guys like Kenny Dalglish, Danny McGrain & Henrik Larsson, he was a fantastic little winger.

I dont agree Jinky being far better than Figo. And neither agree Jinky was in the league of Best or Garrincha. Matthews though his legacy i something else. That said Jinky is ofcourse top 10 winger for me, and his dribbling is sensational as it gets.

[quote="CrazyBoy"]

Don Carlo wrote:I agree, Van Basten was the best of the lot, phenomenal talent.

Ps. I might replace Shevchenko with Klinsmann personally but great list you have there I must admit.

ya Van Basten for me because I liked his style much, although I wont disagree if someone picks Romario or Ronaldo because both were out of the world strikers, with different style of play ofcourse. Although if I had to pick one striker ever for my team it would be Eusebio.

Don Carlo wrote:No chance, Di Stefano was not a superior player to Cruyff, that`s ridiculous... the best you could give Di Stefano was he was on the same tier but he wasn`t a superior version.... Cruyff was a lot quicker, was a better crosser & was a better dribbler for starters... both were very complete players though, I`d rather have Cruyff in my team.

Cruyff was more technical than Di Stefano but Di Stefano was a leader and performer that Cruyff never could be. Cruyff after Ajax and his first season in Barca became somewhat okayish, compared to his his sensational form when he was at Ajax.
Di Stefano on the other throughout his career performed with an equal intensity and success whether at Colombia or Argentina(there he was a second fiddle though to that great River Plate team of 40s) or Spain.

Don Carlo wrote:

CrazyBoy wrote:this is my all time wingers:
I`m not being biased as a Celtic fan but Jimmy`Jinky`Johnstone should be on your list, I`ll admit I know little of Dzajic but Jinky was a far better winger than Figo & not inferior to your top 3... he was voted Celtic`s best ever player ahead of guys like Kenny Dalglish, Danny McGrain & Henrik Larsson, he was a fantastic little winger.

I dont agree Jinky being far better than Figo. And neither agree Jinky was in the league of Best or Garrincha. Matthews though his legacy i something else. That said Jinky is ofcourse top 10 winger for me, and his dribbling is sensational as it gets.

I think really when you`re discussing players of the absolute top tier it boils more down to style of play preference than one being outright better than the other, particularly in the case of Cruyff vs Di Stefano, I preferred Cruyff`s style of play but there is no team that ever existed that either man couldn`t easily walk into at their best & that says it all about both men.

Van Basten I would ALWAYS have in my team regardless of formation or whatever players were around him, he`s so good & complete he can function anywhere, the overall best centre forward in the history of football in my personal opinion.

Jinky we`ll probably have to disagree on slightly, I think George Best was a more complete player than Jinky, in fact I class Best as the best player Britain ever produced with no hesitation but strictly as wingers I don`t think he was superior to Jinky, same with Garrincha & Mathews, there is simply not enough footage to convince me that they are a level above Johnstone, they don`t look better in the footage I`ve seen & at the end of the day if we`re picking our own teams its about what we have seen, not what others have seen even though they might be right.

Ps. I do think you`d be crazy to choose Figo as your right winger ahead of Jinky though, just my opinion.

other than Maradona that i had a chance to watch a few games when i was a kid , i never watched the other two play , even on Maradona i cant be certain. judging based on some YouTube video or website is stupid .

Epoto wrote: other than Maradona that i had a chance to watch a few games when i was a kid , i never watched the other two play , even on Maradona i cant be certain. judging based on some YouTube video or website is stupid .

I agree its stupid judging on 1 or 2 youtube video`s... its reasonable to judge if you`ve seen almost all available footage of the players though.

I think there plenty of footage of all 3 players to judge what type of strengths, weaknesses & style of play they had, there isn`t as much footage of Pele as there is of Diego & Cruyff but there is a fair amount.

There is full games of each player available as well.

For the record, I can`t call who is better of the 3, they are all geniuses, it really depends which style you like.