Pele is a national hero in Brazil has unbelievable records under his name and countless people worldwide consider him the greatest player to ever step foot on the pitch, so would you believe me if I told you that Pele is the most overrated football player in Football History. for as long as I can remember the idea that Pele was undoubtedly the greatest player ever just seemed to be taken in as a fact and nobody really questioned why whenever names like Maradona Messi Ronaldo or any other footballing icons are brought up Pele always seems to be the benchmark or standard by which fans used to judge these players even a young 17 year old Cristiano Ronaldo has stated that Pele is the greatest player in football history. well Ronaldo was born in 1985 and by that time Pele had already been retired
for eight years.
so the question remains there how can you call someone the greatest of all time, if you've never even seen them play so to break down why Pele is the most overrated footballer ever let's begin with his unreal and almost godlike record of scoring 1283 goals which is the most recorded by any footballer in history however the truth is at 526 or roughly 40% of those goals were not actually scored in official match if those goals were actually scored in friendlies exhibitions and tour games against below-average teams and players even unofficial games like the ones recorded against the Brazilian Coast Guard were counted towards his goal tally Pele's official record is seven hundred fifty seven goals in 812 appearances which don't get me wrong is of course still legendary one of the best goal scoring ratios of all time. we can see his team dominating their opponents would scores like eleven and OH eleven and one and ten and OH also if you look at the club's there against you'll probably notice Nacional juventis and Botafogo but those aren't the actual club giants.he never scored five goals against V Juventus in Italy four or five goals against V Nacional in Uruguay but he did score on the ones with the same name that played for the Brazilian league on to my next point is that the overall competition and level of football that Pele was playing against at the time was not very exceptional at all. back in Pele's era the overall standard and quality of football was not as good. Pele was an exceptional player in that generation because of how he transformed the game it's no surprise that the nature of football or any other sport just like with everything else in the world increases in quality as time goes on due to factors like technological advancement better understanding and new styles being developed if you've been paying attention to the level of defense being played it was hardly impressive in that era only a handful of players really stood out there weren't many elite defenders in that era but to be fair Pele was a generational talent that had never been seen before being a neck exceptional offensive talent with that
flair and touch that just seems to come natural to many Brazilian talents in today's game in fact Pele style of play actually bridged the term joga bonito or the beautiful game to the football world but a good question you should ask yourself is could Pele actually do this against defenders like Sergio Ramos Paolo Maldini Fabio Cannavaro or other elite defenders that came so much longer after he had retired I mean try naming even a couple of elite defenders in Pele's time. Pele FIFA World Cup achievements aren't as marvelous as everyone is led to believe although he does have the most finals wins many people believe that he also held the record for the most goals scored but that record actually belongs to Ronaldo the phenomenal or that was until Germany's Miroslav Klose broke the record in 2014 the most World Cup games won also belongs to fellow Brazilian Kapoor with 16 in fact Pele was actually outperformed in all three of his World Cup final wins and really only won two World Cups in his first World Cup final win in 1958 his teammate dee dee was voted the player of the tournament in his second World Cup win in 1962. he was injured and didn't even play any significant minutes while his teammate
Garrincha led Brazil to a win with some breathtaking performances and on his third and final World Cup win in 1970 .which was the first ever world cup to be broadcasted in full color Pele wasn't even Brazil's top goalscorer the honor actually belongs to his teammate Jar Zinio who scored seven goals in the
tournament so I've read many Brazilians are actually aware of these facts it's more common knowledge for them but to everyone else.Pele's name just seems to be on a whole nother level apparently if you ask any Brazilian who their greatest players are you're likely to hear Jar Zinio Garrincha or ZZ No. interestingly enough in 2002 a year where Brazil won the World Cup there coach Luiz Scolari said that he believes Pele knows nothing about football by the 1970s Pele was world renowned being the second most recognizable name in Europe second only to coca-cola. Pele was so famous that his club Santos took him out on multiple world tours to play exhibition matches and friendlies because so many people would pay to see him play even if he was against absolute scrubs and this is where most of his
500-plus unofficial goals would come from he would play more than a hundred games touring around Europe and maybe this is how he earned such a legendary status every time Pele went on a tour there would be newspaper articles and columns that circulated all over the world not only in Europe he was a
walking box-office hit each tour he went on increased not only his fame but his seemingly legendary goal scoring record and maybe it's because of this that people would spread his name and tie it
to being the greatest of all time in all. honesty it just seems to me like the older generations talking about Pele as the best ever has kind of just been passed down and blindly accepted Peledid impact the game and bring football. into a whole new level bringing even more popularity and interest in the sport.I guess you could say Pele is the grandfather of football and maybe you as a football fan consider him the greatest,ever simply because of all this and don't get me wrong Pele was the most dominant player in his
era and was immensely gifted for his time he is the all-time leading goalscorer for Brazil with 77
official goals holds the record for the most hat tricks with 92 the youngest to ever score a goal in the FIFA World Cup and the youngest to score a hat-trick in the world cup he is in FIFA's 100 greatest footballers list was the FIFA. Player of the century and was also included in Time Magazine's 100 most
important people of the 20th century. anyways the purpose of this Blog is to just inform you guys about a lot of misconceptions surrounding Pele's career and to basically give you a rundown of why I believe Pele is the most overrated footballer of all time but again I just want to say that I am in no way trying
to disrespect Pele and what he has done for the world and for football because Pele is an amazing person still traveling the world and acting as an ambassador for the sport it's definitely not a bad thing for the younger people to learn more about such an iconic figure I mean who knows maybe in 20
years the younger generation won't even consider Pele's name in the conversation for who was the greatest player of all time. I definitely believe that that debate will be between Messi or Ronaldo.
0 Comments