Each to their own era

Pele by far, he is the youngest man to have played in the final of world cup, the only man with 3 world cup medals. When he visited Nigeria in 1978 in the match btw Fluminense FC and Nigeria 11, that guy dribled everyone on the pitch, he took the ball from one end to the other and back without anyone been able to tackle him.

In 1967, the Nigerian Civil War had a 48-hour ceasefire to watch Pelé play an exhibition game in Lagos. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1608/is_2_22/ai_n16071178/

Maradona is great, no doubt,  but man pass man, he did not win World cup 86 alone, infact in the final match, Buruchaga scored the winning goals.

^^^ Guy help me dey tell dem o!

@Jalether, stop insulting someone just b'cos that person disagree to ur point of arguement. i gat many so many points to prove u wrong on ur reply but since u'r that insulting type, i think i'd better forget about the arguement and think of something else instead of xchanging word of insult with u, but 1 thing i'll like u to know is that, so long as football is concern, pele is FAR better than maradona. thanx!

Ranoscky:

^^^ Guy help me dey tell dem o!

@Jalether, stop insulting someone just b'cos that person disagree to your point of arguement. i gat many so many points to prove u wrong on your reply but since u'r that insulting type, i think i'd better forget about the arguement and think of something else instead of xchanging word of insult with u, but 1 thing i'll like u to know is that, so long as football is concern, pele is FAR better than maradona. thanx!

That's according to ranoscky.

Insult is a part and parcel of the sports thread, you shouldn't take it personal . . . . It's our way of saying get some perspective

this argument will continue long after they are dead and we are all gone

Remii:

Pele by far, he is the youngest man to have played in the final of world cup, the only man with 3 world cup medals. When he visited Nigeria in 1978 in the match btw Fluminense FC and Nigeria 11, that guy dribled everyone on the pitch, he took the ball from one end to the other and back without anyone been able to tackle him.

In 1967, the Nigerian Civil War had a 48-hour ceasefire to watch Pelé play an exhibition game in Lagos. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1608/is_2_22/ai_n16071178/

Maradona is great, no doubt, but man pass man, he did not win World cup 86 alone, infact in the final match, Buruchaga scored the winning goals.

I recollect a certain Mr Diego laying the penetrating offside beating pass that led to the goal!!!

I know why you don't know what single handed means, since it is rare to see such things in life time.  Surely you won't see that in Pele's case.

Please watch Maradonas football videos from youtube, then you will surely understand.

And I don't want to waste the time. I hope you know Maradona was voted the payer of the centurey by people.

The real Peoples champion Maradona,

some peeps are saying maradona is the best. if u ask dem why? they'll ask u to go and watch his video clips and u'll see it. is it b'cos during pele's reign in football their was no much video coverage? but stil his record speaks for him yet some peeps stil say maradona is the best. well, i'll say u guys voted for maradona b'cos u watched him play during his time. but to me, dough, i didn't watch pele play but his RECORD say's it all, and we judge heroes through their record. some said maradona single handedly won the '86 W.C what a joke! Even maradona himself cannot boast of that, all he'll say is. . ."I captained my team during the '86 W.C, and we went back home with the trophy!"  as simple as that and nothing more! pele's record is there i just can't figure out why some peeps gatto argue with this, it's just like, i.e when they say an armed rubber is the richest in the world, and some peeps said no he's not! and when u ask them why? they'll say b'cos, he rubb's other peeps and collect their money, that if he's not an armed rubber he wouldn't have been the richest. so what is the concern of pele having other great players around him? is that not his benefit? when Nigeria played argentina at US '94, which Nigerian player is as good as caniggia? talkless of maradona? W.C is a competition wherein u play with what u have, and not unlike football club where u can by any caliber of player u like. infact i can't even believe i'm stil on dis arguement when the record is there for ALL of us to see and yet some are stil argueing. This topic is just like a school assignment whereby a teacher gave an assignment and also gave an "EXPO" (answer) for the student to pass the subject so easily but stil. . . . .

for those of y'all arguing in favour of maradona, why not look at the voting list to see which player is leading the vote?

Check the following record for PELE:
He scored five goals in a game six times, four goals 30 times, three goals 90 times. Between 1956 and 1974, he racked up a massive 1,220 goals, scoring at least 100 times in three of those seasons.
Pele was a big game player--not only scoring an average of at least one goal in every international game he played but also leading Brazil to three consecutive World Cup titles. I read about one of his games, where he played a corner kick and still made it to inside 18 to score the same ball he played.

Those who say since they didn't see his actions they don't believe it, one day they would be comparing Nigerian Teslim Thunder Balogun with the likes of Kanu, Martins etc since they saw those and did not the greatest Nigerian Footballer of all times.

Remii:

Check the following record for PELE:
He scored five goals in a game six times, four goals 30 times, three goals 90 times. Between 1956 and 1974, he racked up a massive 1,220 goals, scoring at least 100 times in three of those seasons.
Pele was a big game player--not only scoring an average of at least one goal in every international game he played but also leading Brazil to three consecutive World Cup titles. I read about one of his games, where he played a corner kick and still made it to inside 18 to score the same ball he played.

Those who say since they didn't see his actions they don't believe it, one day they would be comparing Nigerian Teslim Thunder Balogun with the likes of Kanu, Martins etc since they saw those and did not the greatest Nigerian Footballer of all times.

Against what opponents?

Even david villa will score 800 goals per 100 games in shitty leagues (brazil and MLS) where pele spent his career. would he have scored that many goals

in the serie A and la liga where maradona proved himself amongst other great players

BTW, his total goal tally includes goals scored  in exhibition matches as well.

Those who are arguing for the most part cannot play football anywhere near the level of these two greats - me inclusive. There are more ways than we can list here to compare footballers, but since these two never met one-on-one, we cannot really compare them. They played in completely different eras. Here's the way history will remember them: RECORDS. The unmeasurable aspects of their footballing prowess will fade out of our memories - or out of the history books after we have left this earth. However, the records will still bear the following:

   # Youngest world cup winning palyer - PELE
   # Most world cups by an individual - PELE
   # Youngest player to score in a world cup final - PELE (*This is remarkable, since Maradona fans say his team was lousy. If Pele's team was greater, how come they needed a 17-year-old to score for them? The guy was simply great, even at that age! Also, was the Brazilian team great in 3 world cups? Don't get me wrong. Any team that wins the world cup must do so as a team. It's just that it is lame to say Maradona single-handedly won a world cup. Don't insult his teammates.)

I admit, those Pele records will one day be broken, but the person to break them was not, and can no longer be, Maradona. Their respective eras have come and gone, and Pele remains after Maradona. He was before Maradona, but is still in the record books after Maradona. That is not an insignificant fact. Sorry, Maradona!

The main advantage Maradona has over Pele is that he played in a more modern era when TV and other media had proliferated the world. The Internet also helped him because his fans are around to put him there. Those same fans gave him the ability to win the popular vote. To suggest that he played in a mediocre 1986 Argentina world cup team is to insult those on his team - as though he would have won if they did not play! If he was that good, why did he not also  "single-handedly" win another world cup?

Here is one reason the U.S. is such a great sporting nation - all the major sporting leagues keep tab of the records set by their players. While people want to crown Michael Jordan as the greatest basketballer of all time, the record books say otherwise. True, Michael Jordan was great, but history says there were others - because their records speak for them. We may have biased opinions, the Guinness Book of Records has an unbiased documentation of irrefutable facts. For now, it is PELE. In another 50 years, Maradona may be history. Pele stands a greater chance of remaining in the record books.

I wrote an article on this subject I hope all of you will enjoy.

http://truvianni./2011/05/13/maradona-vs-pele/