In a soccer scoreboards feature, we look at the two greatest soccer players ever. Soccer’s greatest rivalry is between the Brazilian Pele and the Argentine, Maradona. Both of them are regarded as the best players in the history of soccer and many consider that no other players in history have reached their heights. The soccer scoreboards showed that Pele and Maradona met in 14 World Cup matches and redefined the game. The argument never seems to end about who was the better player. There is only way to find out who was the greater player, and that is through stats. So here’s a look at the stats of each one of them.

Pele led the way for Brazil to win the World Cup in 1958. He was only 17 years old at the time. Then in 1962 and in 1997, Brazil was able to successfully defend their title. It was under Pele’s captaincy that the team was able to win the World Cup for the 3rd time. Brazil has won the World Cup for a record 5 times. Pele was regarded as the force of nature on the football ground because of his immense power and clinical finish. He could head the ball as hard as only most players could kick it. Pele has 1000 goals to himself. In 92 games he played for Brazil he scored 72 times, and he was always a very influential person when he played. The younger generation admired him and his amazing impact on the game of soccer.

Maradona is regarded as one of the greatest players ever. He was an aggressive and arrogant player which is why he remained in the news for much of the time. Apart from being a great player, Maradona was famous for his controversies. In 1986, it was due to him that Argentina managed to win the World Cup. He scored the most controversial goal of all time, which is popularly known as the Hand of God. Maradona was also into drugs. He was even suspended for the rest of the tournament in 1994 when he tested positive for Ephedrine doping. Maradona caught the limelight not only because he created game but also because of the controversies that surrounded him.

Some people argue that comparing Pele and Maradona is not justified because of the age gap. Pele had a clean career, free of controversies unlike Maradona which makes him superior to Maradona. Comparing them on the basis of team performance and winning World cups is unfair as well. Brazil was known as the dream team and had outstanding players while Argentina only had Maradona. He single handedly won the world cup for Argentina in 1986. This debate will go on forever as to who was the greatest player of the two but there is one thing for sure, and that is that soccer has never witnessed such a rivalry and will possibly never be able to produce players again that had the impact of Pele and Maradona, although Messi might have something to say about that…

For more information, go to:
en.wikipedia.org