Messi revives debate about the best in history, but the parameter is always Pelé

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Manchester City’s Spanish coach Pep Guardiola declared after the World Cup that Lionel Messi is the greatest player of all time. With all weights. “Anyone who has seen Pelé, Maradona or Di Stéfano can choose their favorite. There are approaches with a sentimental content. I already said that it is difficult to understand how a player competes, like him, in the last 15 or 17 years. For me, Messi is the best” , said.

Pelé competed at a very high level, as Guardiola claims he saw Messi do, for 20 years, between 1957 and 1977. He heard comparisons with Di Stéfano, Eusébio, Cruyff, Maradona, Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi.

For 65 years, when you want to raise someone to the highest level, the counterpoint is always Pelé.

By placing two Argentines on the list, in addition to Pelé, Guardiola makes it possible to recall an old and prejudiced joke about the supposed arrogance of our neighbors. “Maradona is the best player of all time… And one of the best in Argentina.”

It means that, for decades, they haven’t decided which was the best in the history of their own country.

In 1999, left winger Felix Loustau, of the 1940s River Plate, nicknamed La Máquina, said: “Maradona is very good, but a long way from Pelé and José Manuel Moreno”.

Moreno was the right midfielder for that River, the best of all Argentine footballers in the opinion of many who saw him in action.

“We Argentines are the only ones to discuss this. Maradona was Maradona, today is Messi. Scaloni says he is the best ever. He is the best in Messi’s history. Before, there was Cruyff, Di Stéfano, Pelé, Maradona. They are cycles. What more could Scaloni say? Messi is his player”, Mario Kempes, champion of 1978, told the Spanish daily El País.

Taking the battle to the numbers doesn’t eliminate disagreements either. Europeans rule out friendlies from statistics. Recently, the total number of appearances and goals in official matches for Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi surpassed that of Pelé. The argument goes that, in another era, without contracts for TV broadcasts, friendlies were a source of income for Santos, which explains the King having scored 516 times in these matches.

In Qatar, Cristiano became the world record holder for appearances and goals for national teams. Messi holds the South American record. Pelé scored 767 times in 818 official matches, an average of 0.94, higher than Messi (0.79) and Cristiano Ronaldo (0.71).

Even comparing only matches from competitions recognized by Europeans, the King is superior.

Messi became the athlete with the most games (26) and wins (16) in World Cups. He surpassed Pelé in goals scored at World Cups, 13 to 12. He remains behind on average, as Pelé has scored 12 times in just 14 games.

Mbappé is just like the King in that regard.

Messi and Maradona have the record for passing goals at World Cups, eight each. Pelé gave six, according to official history, which only catalogs assists from 1966 onwards. The King gave two in the 1958 Cup, both for Vavá to score.

There is another complicating element in this dispute: the advancement of technology. Boots, balls, pitches and uniforms are better, and television plays in favor of those who play today.

The headline of the French newspaper L’Equipe, the day after the Brazilian national team’s third championship, in 1970, said: “Brazil and Pelé are invincible!”. Admiration for the King was stamped on the front page. The same newspaper awarded Pelé the title of Athlete of the Century in 1980, 20 years before the turn of the millennium.

The admiration was as huge in those days as the appreciation for Lionel Messi was at the end of the 2022 World Cup.

Nobody saw Pelé and Maradona on the field every week. Serie A from Italy had one game broadcast per week to South America. If Maradona played poorly on any given Sunday, one could argue that he played well the week before. Probably no TV broadcast.

The attendance record at Vila Belmiro is 33,000 spectators, in a game in which the stands collapsed due to overcrowding, in 1964. If Pelé scored 288 times at Santos stadium, it can be deduced that few people saw the King in action every week . Messi has played at a high level almost every Wednesday and Sunday since 2005, with live television around the world.

Transmissions could be a disadvantage, as it shows that he plays badly too. On the contrary, it is rare to see Messi with a bad performance. We are, here, talking only about the rare ones.

The Argentine 2022 world champion is the first in history to score goals in the group stage, round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and final. He didn’t score against Poland and didn’t match Jairzinho, scorer of goals in all the 1970 Cup matches, like the Uruguayan Ghiggia (1950), the Hungarian Sarosi and the Swede Nyberg (1938).

There were no round of 16 in Cups with 16 participants. As of the next edition, there will be 48 selections per World Cup.

To see how times change.

Messi started his career at Barcelona with the number 30 shirt and won the 2006 Champions League with the number 19, the same one used in his first World Cup. When Guardiola took over at Barça, he sacked Ronaldinho and handed the number 10 mantle to the Argentine.

Why didn’t he give her the blue and maroon 9, worn by Cruyff, or the 14? The Dutch myth, genius of space, was inspiration for Pep to cast Messi as a fake center forward.

Why didn’t he offer him the 7, since he played on the right?

Why number 10?

Even Guardiola, without realizing it, revered Pele.

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