Pele has "won" more Ballon d'Ors than Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, the Brazilian legend claiming seven of the annual awards that mark the world's best player.

You might think that Messi holds the all-time record with six, ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo's five. But according to France Football, who organise the Ballon d'Or, Pele is on seven awards and leading the pack. Let us explain!

Until 1995, only European footballers were eligible to win the Ballon d'Or. Pretty unfair, so France Football changed that rule and opened up the award to truly honour the world's best.

Then in 2016, they went back and did an "international re-evaluation" to calculate who should have won the Ballon d'Or had it always been global - and retrospectively gave Pele seven: for 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964 and 1970.


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They only did this in years when a non-European player deserved to win overall. As a result, Diego Maradona (twice), Romario, Mario Kempes and Garrincha joined Pele on the honorary winners list.

France Football even printed a magazine cover of Pele with his golden trophies and the headline: "Pele 7 Ballon d'Ors" - which seems pretty clear-cut.



Among current football fans, there's a tendency to suggest Pele has been overrated with some questioning the (admittedly dubious) maths behind his 1,000+ career goals.

Yet some facts are indisputable: that he's the only player to win three World Cups, that he scored 77 goals for Brazil in just 92 games, that he was widely regarded as the biggest and best footballer of his era across South America, Europe and the USA.

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Some modern onlookers also question the fact that he spent his entire club career in Brazil and MLS, never playing in a European league. But this criticism does not stand up at all.


Today we are used to a talent drain with the best players from every continent playing in Europe's top leagues. But that was not the case in the 1960s and 70s when South America's club sides were as good - if not better - than those in Europe.

Pele's Santos took on Europe's elite and beat them regularly. In the Intercontinental Cups of 1962 and 1963 - which pitted the European champions against the Copa Libertadores winners - Santos beat Benfica then AC Milan. Overall, Pele scored nine goals across five games.

Two of Pele's "internationalised" Ballon d'Ors fall in World Cup-winning years: 1958 and 1970. It's the same with Maradona for 1986, when he was undoubtedly the world's best player, and 1990 (although El Diego's heroics for Napoli also contributed).

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So, in other words, if Maradona's countryman Messi wants to equal Pele's internationalised record, he still has to win another Ballon d'Or - while two more will take him clear. Ronaldo would need a hat-trick of Ballon d'Or wins to overtake Pele.

Does this prove that Pele really is football's GOAT after all? Let us know in the comments.

Source: https://www.sportbible.com/football/football-news-legends-pele-has-won-more-ballon-dor-awards-than-lionel-messi-or-ronaldo-20200925.amp.html

The Balon D'Or was for the Best Player In Europe..
Pele never played in Europe..
They can DASH him 20 Balon D'Or if they like..

Pele us over rated no offside doing his time messi us better

another trash coming from cr7 media team to make messi great feat look normal in comapring to pele..
even if its true and uefa confirmed it, messi would meet and beat dt 7th mark..

Doesn't matter, They are all great men.

Pele was a great player no doubt but I honestly doubt that his conditions of football should be compared to wat this two GOAT are facing now. Infact were C Ronaldo to play in the same conditions of football in the Pele days, he might undoubtedly be in his 1k plus goals now taking into consideration how the guy is so lucky with goals. Same is Messi playing in a football era where there is no offside and the rules in the box and outside are no more as now, there will be scoring at least 5 goals a match.
All d same Messi is still the GOAT.

dey will soon come messi vs cr7 people

paulolee:
another trash coming from cr7 media team to make messi great feat look normal in comapring to pele..
even if its true and uefa confirmed it, messi would meet and beat dt 7th mark..

Balor d hor or not...Pele is greater than messi and ronaldo..

ojaysam25:

Balor d hor or not...Pele is greater than messi and ronaldo..

Where does Pele rank in football?

Masonkaycares:
Where does Pele rank in football?

Funny question...Pele is the undisputed GOAT of football...you think is an easy feat to win 3 world cup...score thousands of goals....Pele is the greatest of all time follow by cr7,maradona and messi...

ojaysam25:

Funny question...Pele is the undisputed GOAT of football...you think is an easy feat to win 3 world cup...score thousands of goals....Pele is the greatest of all time follow by cr7,maradona and messi...

Thousand of goal for where?

ojaysam25:

Funny question...Pele is the undisputed GOAT of football...you think is an easy feat to win 3 world cup...score thousands of goals....Pele is the greatest of all time follow by cr7,maradona and messi...

Pele only scored about 700 official goals in an era without offside and without so much football competition like today.
I don't know about Ronaldo, but Messi is definitely greater than pele. The Argentine is a true football artist blessed by the gods.

GeneralDae:

Pele only scored about 700 official goals in an era without offside and without so much football competition like today.
I don't know about Ronaldo, but Messi is definitely greater than pele. The Argentine is a true football artist blessed by the gods.

I doubt most Argentine will agree with you....he should be the greatest Argentine player before thinking of the world unlike the case of ronaldo and Pele which are undisputed GOAT in their respective countries....and yes Pele score more than that even the official goals is still more than messi and ronaldo.

ojaysam25:

I doubt most Argentine will agree with you....he should be the greatest Argentine player before thinking of the world unlike the case of ronaldo and Pele which are undisputed GOAT in their respective countries....and yes Pele score more than that even the official goals is still more than messi and ronaldo.

What are you talking about?

Messi is Argentina's top scorer ever, has the most assists ever for Argentina and was the star man for Argentina as they reached world cup final (2014) and two copa america finals(around same period). Messi was also the best player in the 2014 world cup tournament ( Ronaldo has never been close to being considered best player of any world cup tournament). In the last 5 years, Argentina has been shit, blessed with great individual forwards but with above average defenders(you can only play 3 forwards at a time), and they have not been very good playing as a team. Messi had to deliver them on several occasions, qualifying them almost single handedly for the world cup with his hat tricks, while Portugal won the Euro finals with Ronaldo on the bench. Portugal, though not as great as Argentina, are currently more organised than Argentina.

In 2014 world cup, messi gave it all, created the chances which both Higuain and Aguero spilled, then why should messi be blamed for that? In 2018 world cup, both Messi and Ronaldo were eliminated in the second round, messi's Argentina lost 4-3 to eventual champions Frances( with messi providing 2 assists) while Portugal lost 2-0 in the second round to Uruguay, same Uruguay were destroyed by Frances in the quarter finals.
Who then had a better tournament for his team in the 2018 world cup? Note that we are talking about an Argentine team that lost 6-1 to Spain and 4-2 to Nigeria without messi in the build up friendlies to the tournament, and that had to depend on Messi in the last minutes of the qualifiers to qualify them for the world cup.

Also Portugal has played more games against the likes of Latvia,Cyprus, Faero islands, etc in qualifiers, while Argentina mostly play the likes of Colombia. Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, in every copa America qualifier. Ronaldo has 101 goals for Portugal in all of these since 2003, while Messi who made his debut in 2005 for Argentina, playing on average more difficult games has 70 goals and a Plethora of assists.

I doubt you know much about messi's international success, it is not up to his standards and that is why people complain, but apart from winning the world cup, messi has the best stats in the history of Argentina, and they reached 2014 WC finals for the first time since 1986.

ojaysam25:

Balor d hor or not...Pele is greater than messi and ronaldo..

DTS ur opinion....according to ramos, he said "we were told dt pele was d best and scored goals bt we all see messi played in the highest level and scored goals too and the difference is dt we are easily convinced buy wat we see bcox sometimes what you hear may fail you".....i saw messi played n won trophies and award, pele only edge is winning cups for his country dt messi didnt BUT dt cnt take anything from d fact dt messi is the GOAT

GeneralDae:

What are you talking about?

Messi is Argentina's top scorer ever, has the most assists ever for Argentina and was the star man for Argentina as they reached world cup final (2014) and two copa america finals(around same period). Messi was also the best player in the 2014 world cup tournament ( Ronaldo has never been close to being considered best player of any world cup tournament). In the last 5 years, Argentina has been shit, blessed with great individual forwards but with above average defenders(you can only play 3 forwards at a time), and they have not been very good playing as a team. Messi had to deliver them on several occasions, qualifying them almost single handedly for the world cup with his hat tricks, while Portugal won the Euro finals with Ronaldo on the bench. Portugal, though not as great as Argentina, are currently more organised than Argentina.

In 2014 world cup, messi gave it all, created the chances which both Higuain and Aguero spilled, then why should messi be blamed for that? In 2018 world cup, both Messi and Ronaldo were eliminated in the second round, messi's Argentina lost 4-3 to eventual champions Frances( with messi providing 2 assists) while Portugal lost 2-0 in the second round to Uruguay, same Uruguay were destroyed by Frances in the quarter finals.
Who then had a better tournament for his team in the 2018 world cup? Note that we are talking about an Argentine team that lost 6-1 to Spain and 4-2 to Nigeria without messi in the build up friendlies to the tournament, and that had to depend on Messi in the last minutes of the qualifiers to qualify them for the world cup.

Also Portugal has played more games against the likes of Latvia,Cyprus, Faero islands, etc in qualifiers, while Argentina mostly play the likes of Colombia. Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, in every copa America qualifier. Ronaldo has 101 goals for Portugal in all of these since 2003, while Messi who made his debut in 2005 for Argentina, playing on average more difficult games has 70 goals and a Plethora of assists.

I doubt you know much about messi's international success, it is not up to his standards and that is why people complain, but apart from winning the world cup, messi has the best stats in the history of Argentina, and they reached 2014 WC finals for the first time since 1986.

I see no reason for this long episode....maradona is still the bestArgentine player....you made mention of messi been the highest goalscorer but only 20% of his goals came in a competitive match...even the world cup you mention he didnt score in the knockout stage...I think James Rodriguez did better with out of favor Colombia..
Messi scores an hat trick toqualify Argentina for a worldcup against Ecuador like you rightly said the likes of Pele and ronaldo did so against bigger teams...especially ronaldo hat trick against ibrahimovic Sweden.
I can bet my balls that ronaldo would have won something with this Argentina squad filled with top players...messi is a great player no doubt but he is still behind the likes of Pele,maradona and cr7 who won for their respective countries.

paulolee:

DTS ur opinion....according to ramos, he said "we were told dt pele was d best and scored goals bt we all see messi played in the highest level and scored goals too and the difference is dt we are easily convinced buy wat we see bcox sometimes what you hear may fail you".....i saw messi played n won trophies and award, pele only edge is winning cups for his country dt messi didnt BUT dt cnt take anything from d fact dt messi is the GOAT

I think it is an insult to Pele comparing him to messi....Pele won 3 world cup for Christ sake,messi has not even won anything for Argentina apart from scoring lots of goals in friendlies...he is not even on ronaldo and maradona level...Pele is the undisputed GOAT..

kenzysmith:
Pele us over rated no offside doing his time messi us better

Bros there was offside during Pele era, and it was worst than that of this era.
https://www.sportskeeda.com/football/10-famous-football-myths-debunked

GeneralDae:

Pele only scored about 700 official goals in an era without offside and without so much football competition like today.
I don't know about Ronaldo, but Messi is definitely greater than pele. The Argentine is a true football artist blessed by the gods.

Bros there was offside during Pele era

ojaysam25:

I see no reason for this long episode....maradona is still the bestArgentine player....you made mention of messi been the highest goalscorer but only 20% of his goals came in a competitive match...even the world cup you mention he didnt score in the knockout stage...I think James Rodriguez did better with out of favor Colombia..
Messi scores an hat trick toqualify Argentina for a worldcup against Ecuador like you rightly said the likes of Pele and ronaldo did so against bigger teams...especially ronaldo hat trick against ibrahimovic Sweden.
I can bet my balls that ronaldo would have won something with this Argentina squad filled with top players...messi is a great player no doubt but he is still behind the likes of Pele,maradona and cr7 who won for their respective countries.

'Won with their countries' not 'for their countries'....and so you're saying because these guys have international trophies they are ahead of Messi? Then by all means, Varane is ahead of Cr7, Puyol too, Casilas, Neuer, Muller, Ramos, Zidane, Delima, heck even Pedro too...These guys have won considerably more than with their national and club teams. You're saying Maradona is Argentina's best player(which is relatively true) simply because He won a world cup with them, that's why you're picking him over Messi. Honest truth is, it's not this guy's fault that Argentina hasn't won anything, they have just been unlucky.

ojaysam25:

I see no reason for this long episode....maradona is still the bestArgentine player....you made mention of messi been the highest goalscorer but only 20% of his goals came in a competitive match...even the world cup you mention he didnt score in the knockout stage...I think James Rodriguez did better with out of favor Colombia..
Messi scores an hat trick toqualify Argentina for a worldcup against Ecuador like you rightly said the likes of Pele and ronaldo did so against bigger teams...especially ronaldo hat trick against ibrahimovic Sweden.
I can bet my balls that ronaldo would have won something with this Argentina squad filled with top players...messi is a great player no doubt but he is still behind the likes of Pele,maradona and cr7 who won for their respective countries.

Ronaldo won Euro cup for his country, messi has reached a world cup final, you don't measure great players only by what they have won. You look at their artistry, how they play the game and how they score goals, stats are looked at only as icing on the cake. This is why I brought out his stats for Argentina. In the end football is a team sports. If Higuain had converted those chances in 2014 and messi won the world cup, would you still have anything against messi? would you then agree he is the best or you would bring up another argument to suit your bias?

Stats are important but they don't tell the whole story about the quality of a player.

Also you say only 20% of his goals were in official games, but still it doesn't matter, he is still their top scorer and on average Argentina faces tougher opponents than Portugal in qualifiers.
I mean let's say the truth, Messi, Pele, Maradona, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo de Lima ( before his long injury then) shows what football artistry is all about, the vision, playmaking, dribbling, and quality goals, but I must confess no one does it like messi. Ronaldo is not close, you can't use just Euro 2016 to say he is, it doesn't work out that way.
I can bet my balls messi would have won something in European national football with such an organised portugese side ( who didn't even depend on Ronaldo recently to beat Sweden).
Portugal would never lose 6-1 to Spain just because they were playing without Ronaldo, but Argentina lost 6-1 to Spain in a friendly without messi, and they depend on Messi more than Portugal depends on Ronaldo currently.

If messi was from Pakistan and by virtue of that can't win world cup, would that say anything against his quality? wasn't George weah the world best player in 1995, even though he had no chance to win even a wafu cup with Liberia? George weah hardly qualified for the African nations cup, but no one in their right senses would rate Mahrez above George weah, simply because Mahrez is an African champion.

GeneralDae:

Ronaldo won Euro cup for his country, messi has reached a world cup final, you don't measure a great player only by what they have won. You look at their artistry, how they play the game and how they score goals, stats are looked at only as icing on the cake. This is why I brought out his stats for Argentina. In the end football is a team sports. If Higuain had converted those chances in 2014 and messi won the world cup, would you still have anything against messi? would you then agree he is the best or you would bring up another argument to suit your bias?

Stats are important but they don't tell the whole story about the quality of a player.

Also you say only 20% of his goals were in official games, but still it doesn't matter, he is still their top scorer and on average Argentina faces tougher opponents than Portugal in qualifiers.
I mean let's say the truth, Messi, Pele, Maradona, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo de Lima ( before his long injury then) shows what football artistry is all about, the vision, playmaking, dribbling, and quality goals, but I must confess no one does it like messi. Ronaldo is not close, you can't use just Euro 2016 to say he is, it doesn't work out that way.
I can bet my balls messi would have won something in European national football with such an organised portugese side ( who didn't even depend on Ronaldo recently to beat Sweden).

I think you are being bias here...Portugal is not even a power house in Europe,they are like the Paraguay of south America....the likes of Germany,France,Italy,England,Belgium are way ahead of them unlike south America were Argentina are among the top 2....
Portugal won nothing in their history before the emergence of ronaldo,even the Euro16 they won was as a result of hard work rather than talent,they only won one match throughout the tournament of which ronaldo always bail them out against Hungary and Poland before he got injured in less than 30mins at the final but he still did not lie low even if no body will blame him...he still encourage the players from the touchline...
He score a brace against Sweden recently I wonder why u said he nothing in the match when he scored both goals but I can agree with you Portugal is now a better team.
see messi is great no doubt but he chicken out easily in the face of pressure unlike ronaldo who's passion and obsession with winning is second to none...

ojaysam25:

I think you are being bias here...Portugal is not even a power house in Europe,they are like the Paraguay of south America....the likes of Germany,France,Italy,England,Belgium are way ahead of them unlike south America were Argentina are among the top 2....
Portugal won nothing in their history before the emergence of ronaldo,even the Euro16 they won was as a result of hard work rather than talent,they only won one match throughout the tournament of which ronaldo always bail them out against Hungary and Poland before he got injured in less than 30mins at the final but he still did not lie low even if no body will blame him...he still encourage the players from the touchline...
He score a brace against Sweden recently I wonder why u said he nothing in the match when he scored both goals but I can agree with you Portugal is now a better team.
see messi is great no doubt but he chicken out easily in the face of pressure unlike ronaldo who's passion and obsession with winning is second to none...

He scored two goals against Croatia, before then Portugal had already beaten Sweden 2-0 without Ronaldo.
I agree that Ronaldo is an inspiration in football.
Let's just say from an Engineer's point of view Ronaldo is a better footballer than messi, but from an Artist's point of view, messi is better than Ronaldo.

Moura7:


'Won with their countries' not 'for their countries'....and so you're saying because these guys have international trophies they are ahead of Messi? Then by all means, Varane is ahead of Cr7, Puyol too, Casilas, Neuer, Muller, Ramos, Zidane, Delima, heck even Pedro too...These guys have won considerably more than with their national and club teams. You're saying Maradona is Argentina's best player(which is relatively true) simply because He won a world cup with them, that's why you're picking him over Messi. Honest truth is, it's not this guy's fault that Argentina hasn't won anything, they have just been unlucky.

Maradona is not the only Argentine player that won with his country but he compliment that by also winning and scoring for his club side...messi is Barcelona greatest player no doubt same as ronaldo or pele for their respective clubs....so you also needs to use their performance for their countries also as a yardstick for comparison...I love ronaldo but I will not allow sentiment to rate him ahead of Pele who has incredible numbers.

GeneralDae:

He scored two goals against Croatia, before then Portugal had already beaten Sweden 2-0 without Ronaldo.
I agree that Ronaldo is an inspiration in football.
Let's just say from an Engineer's point of view Ronaldo is a better footballer than messi, but from an Artist's point of view, messi is better than Ronaldo.

Messi is more talented no doubt...just like ronaldiho is the most talented player in the world from my point of view....I enjoyed watching them both...let's say messi is mesmerizing while ronaldo is a machine.

ojaysam25:

Maradona is not the only Argentine player that won with his country but he compliment that by also winning and scoring for his club side...messi is Barcelona greatest player no doubt same as ronaldo or pele for their respective clubs....so you also needs to use their performance for their countries also as a yardstick for comparison...I love ronaldo but I will not allow sentiment to rate him ahead of Pele who has incredible numbers.

Yh I get you but Messi's performance for his country is stellar too. He is their topscorer and assists provider too, that is no easy feat at all. Like I said before, that his team hasn't won anything isn't his fault at all and that doesn't mean he doesn't perform great for his country. Ok be honest, what if Arg won the WC and Messi played like two matches and missed the rest because of injury. Would you now acknowledge that he's the GOAT or ahead of Ronaldo??...be honest.

Moura7:


Yh I get you but Messi's performance for his country is stellar too. He is their topscorer and assists provider too, that is no easy feat at all. Like I said before, that his team hasn't won anything isn't his fault at all and that doesn't mean he doesn't perform great for his country. Ok be honest, what if Arg won the WC and Messi played like two matches and missed the rest because of injury. Would you now acknowledge that he's the GOAT or ahead of Ronaldo??...be honest.

Even if he plays the entire tournament but neither score or assits but Argentina won the world cup still will not agree with you..he is their best player in the squad much is expected from him in every match same as ronaldo...having said that he is a great player notwithstanding...

ojaysam25:

Even if he plays the entire tournament but neither score or assits but Argentina won the world cup I still will not agree with you..he is their best player much is expected from him same as ronaldo...having said that he is a great player notwithstanding...

ojaysam25:

Even if he plays the entire tournament but neither score or assits but Argentina won the world cup I still will not agree with you..he is their best player much is expected from him same as ronaldo...having said that he is a great player
notwithstanding...

lol...i knew it. Truth is even if he's the topscorer and assists maker, you still won't agree.

Moura7:




lol...i knew it. Truth is even if he's the topscorer and assists maker, you still won't agree.

I will only agree if Argentina wins the world cup with messi as the architect...