For me,
Maradona was the best as player, but the worst as person (outside the field).

What you think guys?

FIFA made an internet votation and the top 3 were:

1.Maradona (ARG)
2.Pelé (BRA)
3.Distefano (ARG)

We do have 2 of 3!!!

Bye

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Fabian I. LUJAN

I TOTALLY AGREE!

Diego Maradona was a genius on the field and a joy to watch!
It was just a shame though that his personal life wasn't that good...

Nike the Bike -FIFA RTWC Webmaster- http://www.fifartwc.com

where the hell did you left johan cruyff????? i think he is the best player ever!! the best attacker is Pele of course!

VAMOS,ARGENTINA TODAVIA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See you all in 2002.
Final : France / Argentina : 0 - 4

That's a good one. No way, no chance. There are loads of better players too choose from, here's a few...

Franz Beckenbauer
Bobby Charlton
Alfredo Di Stefano
Johan Cruyff
Stanley Matthews
Eusebio
Ferenc Puskas
Pele
Hector Scarone
Lev Yashin

I admit that Maradona was a great player, but I still don't think he deserves to be named best player of the century.

I think players of the century really,i mean stick Maradona in the centre of defence and see how copes,he may have entertained but defenders who can tackle and set up plays such as Bobby Moore used to do deserve credit.

Attacker=Pele/Van Basten
Midfielder=Maradona/Zidane
Defender=Bobby Moore
Goalkeeper=Banks/Schmiecal

Some may dissagree on Van basten and Zidane but for me the two of them where and are the highest quality around for thier postions Van Bastens instinct infront of goal,Zidanes thinking,power,passing are the best i have ever seen he was what i would call the perfect midfielder wish UTD would break the bank to get him to Old Trafford http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/smile.gif

ErikTheKing
holy135@hotmail.com

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"Cantonaaaaaaaaa ohh would you believe it"
Martin Tyler.

I agree on that....there are many positions who can´t be compared to others...

For example...Chilavert is an outstanding goalkeeper...but must be voted for gk, not as striker (for taking FKs).

Maradona was in the mid or attacker...I dont know.. I love Marco, he was a great great one (with the help or Rijkaard and Gullit ok?)

But this votations make us put all them together.

For me, Maradona was the greatest by far.
Today FIFA want to share the 1st with Pele...

Can be a 1st place shared (not only in this case).?
I believe not. 1st is 1st, then 2nd.

Fabian

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Fabian I. LUJAN

how about cantona, bobby charlton... but i think pele deserves to be the player of the century

How can there even be a debate on this topic??? 3 World Cups. The only player ever to score more that 1000 goals. Against that druggie??? Diego was good, but he was never Pele. Never better than the King, not even as good. You want proof?? Pele never needed a hand to score a goal.

Woody_007:
at pele's time players were not that skilfull, even my granpa would make the national team, thats why pele did not need any help when playng agaisnt players like my granpa.

heheheh
so one word for u "MARADONA"
http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/smile.gif

HAHAAH!

"at Pele's time players were not that skilfull, even my granpa would make the national team, thats why Pele did not need any help when playng agaisnt players like my granpa."

LoL!! HAHAH!!

1. Please capitalise Pele's name.
2. I think there are a shipload of players who would debate (and join me in laughing at) your statement.
3. I never saw Pele use his hand to score a goal.
4. Pele has three Cups, compared to one for druggie .... I mean Diego. Pele is wayyy better.
5. If that is your excuse ..... the quality of the opposing players, for Diego winning the award, then he does not deserve to win it. This award is based on the impact of a certain player had on The Beautiful Game. No one had more positive effect on football than Pele. Then, now and forever .... the King.

Woody_007:


listen man, the first world cup he was too young and did not play, and third world cup he was injured and did not play, how can u say he has 3 cups u moron. u need to know his history more clearly budy.
well pele can't even score with his hand, haha.

i am not saying pele was not good, i mean pele is awsome at his time and can't compare it to maradona's time where all the players were challenging and sharp, and maradona's skills were so good and there were no competition with his skills. are u blind or something? didn't u see maradona play?

Handball.

Gala:

1. Pele's first World Cup was at the age of seventeen. 1958 in Sweden.

"Brazil, inspired by a 17-year-old youngster called Pelé, won the trophy for the first time. Pelé scored against Wales, hit a hat-trick in a 5-2 win over France in the semi-finals and struck two more in the final, a 5-2 triumph over the hosts."

2. Yes .... Pele was injured in the his second World Cup, 1962 in Chile. But he did score in the first game.

3. In 1966 .... Pele scored in the first game, before injuring himself, and England won.

4. 1970 ... in Mexico.

"There were three big winners in the 1970 World Cup: the Brazilians naturally, and their king, Pelé, victors for the third time after 1958 and 1962 but also football itself, with many games and individual feats entering football legend."
www.fifa.com (http://www.fifa.com)

Is that accurate enough for you?? And even if you discount 1962, he still has two, and Druggie .... I mean Diego still has one. Now do not tell me that crap about the level of players being higher. Whether in 1958 or 1986, the comparative levels were the same. Which is why Pele is the best. Because was so high above everyone else, whether he had struck in 1958 or 1998, he would still be King. There were some pretty damn good players in Pele's time, all of which would make your grandpa look very bad. (no offense) Pele is the best because he changed the game. He had the highest POSITIVE impact of any player ever. No one has won three World Cups. No one has over 1,000 goals. No one has ever been such a gracious ambassador to the game than Pele. I have seen both he and Diego play. I have tapes of Pele and of Maradonna. I can tell you no one electrified an opposing crowd such as Pele. Not Diego, not Cryuff, not Beckenbauer, not Socrates, not Best. Diego will forever be remembered as the druggie who scored a goal vs England with his hand. On of the most notorious moments in football history. Pele will forever be remembered as the King. The man who could not be stopped. The man who tried to give back to football what the Beautiful Game gave to him. Maradonna never did that. He was, and still is about himself. Pele has always put The Game ahead of himself. That alone should tell you why Pele should be the FIFA Player of the Century. Not because of who he faced or how good they were. Pele is magnificent. Pele was unstoppable. Edson Arantes Do Nascimento is the King.

[This message has been edited by Woody_007 (edited 12-09-2000).]

I'm with Woody here, I'll just stand beside him and let him do the arguing since he seems to say everything I'm thinking. http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/smile.gif

What do you think?

If Hagi would have been born in Argentina or Brazil, HE would have been the one we were discussing now! Not true?

Kalplerde Yýldýz
Gönüllerde Ay
GALATASARAY

Woody_007:
what ever dude
for me it is maradona and no one will change it, thats it

No, I disagree, Hagi was one of the best players of the last 15 years, but there were many others as good, and if not better, than him. Pele, Maradona, Beckenbauer, Cryuff, Scorates etc were the some of the greatest players of all time regardless of era.

Hey hang on a minute here guys!
you have totally forgotton George best.
He was waaaay better than maradonna and just as good as Pelè.
I know I will be getting some reactons to this post but you first watch a video of Bestie playing and you will be amazed.
He played for northern ireland and manutd.He never played in a world cup coz northern ireland weren't any good.
Pity bestie ****ed up his life when he was 26.
For me he is the best ever!!!!
End of discussion http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/wink.gif

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-Phil-
"Manutd born and bRED"

Marco van Basten, is The Greatest. It's not just on the pitch. The biggest sportsman ever.

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http://www.fc-redstar.net

Facts on Pele :Won a WC at 17 ,Won 3 Wc,but let me remind you he had already the best players in his team ,meanwhile maradona was the only great player of Argentina.Never won World cup scoring title .Scored over 1000 goals .

Facts on Maradona:Played for an average Napoli squad and gave them 2 or 3 scudetto's and italian cup and look where Napoli is now,at the bottom of the table.Gave Argentina the world all by himself with some luck too .

So its very close to say who is better ,but my vote would go for Maradona ,but its a close one .

That argument people make about the skill diferance in football from now and then, is bull. The only thing that has changed in football is the introduction of money into the game. Back in the dawn of football (Think 20' to 40's) the game was played for the fun of it. The teams didn't have fancy shirts or cool celebrations, the wore bermudas and tight shirts. Player didn't really care if they played for San Lorenzo or Real Madrid. Now everything is controled by money, A player doesn't go to the team he likes he goes to the team with gold. And that sucks. The only thing that has changed in football is the new shirts and the money. The skill, that has nothing to do with it...

It's not a long time, 27 months. Not long enough to spread the gospel of soccer to a nation that does not much care about it, to sway the doubters and charm the corporations and reconvert the immigrants who had discarded the sport as an Old World relic. On June 10, 1975, the North American Soccer League was playing to four-digit crowds in oversized stadiums and subsisting on agate type. That was the day 34-year-old Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known all over the planet as Pelé, came to New York to sign a three-year, $4.5 million deal with the Cosmos, telling a public baffled by his choice, "I looked and saw another mountain to climb."

It was enough time, 27 months, to scale another summit. With Pelé demonstrating the wondrous possibilities of soccer, the number of players registered with the U.S. Soccer Federation nearly quadrupled in that time period, from a little more than 100,000 to 400,000. With Pelé's Cosmos pursuing the 1977 NASL championship -- an event whose climax five years before had drawn only 6,102 people and caused little more than a ripple in the local media -- some 77,000 fans and 140 journalists attended a Cosmo playoff match at Giants Stadium. Said Franz Beckenbauer, the West German hero and a Cosmo teammate who had followed Pelé's lead to the U.S., "I have had many great moments in my career, but the greatest honor was to play with Pelé."

His nickname means nothing in any language but evokes images of genius and gentility in them all. Born in the poor Brazilian town of Tres Coracoes, he began his professional career at 15, earning 5,000 cruzeiros (about US$60) a month to play for the club team Santos. Two years later he was an international icon, having scored a hat trick in a World Cup semi against France and two more goals in Brazil's triumphant final against Sweden to win the first of his three Cups -- an unequaled accomplishment. He was a prodigy who became prodigious. In a game in which 400 goals constitutes a mammoth career, Pelé scored 1,280 in 1,362 matches. He was called Gasoline for his energy, the Executioner for his finishing, the Black Pearl for his preciousness. When he was 19, L'Equipe of Paris wrote, "We have now seen the supreme work of art. Pelé infiltrated through his opponents like Novocain through a sick man's tissues."

Over the years, Italian clubs tried to lure him with millions, but he wouldn't leave Santos because of loyalty and couldn't leave Brazil because of law. In 1961 President Janio Quadros had Pelé declared a national treasure. His aura both as player and as person prompted the warring parties in the Nigeria-Biafra conflict to institute a two-day cease-fire when he made an appearance there in 1968. On Pelé's retirement, J.B. Pinheiro, Brazil's ambassador to the U.N., said Pelé had "spent 22 years playing soccer, and in that time he has done more for goodwill and friendship than all of the ambassadors ever appointed."

On Oct. 1, 1977, Pelé's mission in the NASL ended. His last match, an exhibition game between the Cosmos and Santos, was sold out six weeks beforehand, covered by 650 journalists and broadcast in 38 nations. Muhammad Ali embraced him in the locker room before the match and said, "Now there are two of the greatest." In a speech to dignitaries, celebrities and more than 75,000 fans, Pelé urged his audience to pay attention to the children of the world. At his request, the assemblage shouted, "Love! Love! Love!" Then he went out and played the first half for the Cosmos -- scoring a goal on a rocket from 30 yards out -- and the second half for Santos.

Pelé has continued to work for children's causes and for UNICEF. "It seems that God brought me to Earth with a mission," he wrote in The New York Times after the 1977 season, "to unite people, never to separate them." All the while he has traveled the globe on behalf of his sport, and in 1983 he began an ultimately successful lobbying campaign with soccer's pooh-bahs to award the World Cup to the U.S.

Now 53, Pelé has also become quite rich. He earns an estimated $30 million a year from endorsements and his various businesses. His is a well-rounded grandeur. "Every kid around the world who plays soccer wants to be Pelé," he once said. "I have a great responsibility to show them not just how to be like a soccer player, but how to be like a man."
www.cnnsi.com (http://www.cnnsi.com)

After reading this, compare that druggie to what Pele has done and continues to do. Ask yourself if Diego deserves to mentioned in the same breath as Pele. Forever, O Rei.