Pele, Maradona, Messi: Who is the greatest of all time?

Who gives a monkeys toss who us the best, we can enjoy top players skills even if we don’t like their personality as I don’t with the beastly Maradona

These kind of comparisons are pointless, just accept that the players of old, Pele, George Best and Beckenbauer would all struggle to make the bench on a second division team today.

In boxing, the "GOAT" Ali would not even be in the heavyweight division....

If you really want a giggle look at gymnastics today vs 40 years ago....

Just who is the greatest?

That's easy, Maradona and only Maradona..

Never had this conversation with any football friends. Utterly pointless.

The eras of the game are so different because of rule changes, fitness levels, training techniques and pitch standards.

Don’t get me wrong, the game is as exciting as it’s ever been now but Messi wouldn’t last 5 minutes on the pitch in the 70’s / 80’s.

Conversely, Pelé and Maradona didn’t have the fitness levels required to geigenpress for 90 minutes 3 times a week.

More Cups and goals, a better average per match, a more clutch player = greatest. That is Pele by far.

Pele is the greatest most talented player of all time and no other even comes close to his records. 1,000 goals and three world cups.

The beautiful player of the beautiful game.

Pele always lived up to the expectations.

None of them! The mighty Zinedine Zidane will always be the best.

Pele is the greatest ever player on the international stage with 77 goals for Brazil in just 92 games with three World Cups to his name.

Zidane scored 31 goals, out of his 108 international games. One world cup in 1998.

Maradona carried a mediocre Argentina to World Cup glory and Napoli(!) to their first and second scudettos (the only Serie A titles they have); from that perspective, Maradona is the goat; CR7 was similar; he carried a mediocre (except this generation) Portugal team for years, eventually winning the Euro and the Nations League, and he showed us that he can be the best in any team/league; we saw that in the EPL, with Man Utd, in Spain, with Real Madrid, and in Italy, with Juventus, but of course, it’s not the same as carrying (that) Argentina and Napoli(!); Messi’s Argentina was always a good/strong team, with or without Messi; also, he grew up in Barcelona, played in Barcelona, didn’t leave Barcelona, his comfort zone (until recently/PSG’s Messi is a different Messi), he understood Barcelona, the culture, and together with Guardiola, Xavi, Iniesta and others, created something really special; some people call that Guardiola’s team the best in history, and for a good reason: Messi was there, but he didn’t make history like Maradona and Ronaldo did, he was part of history. Pelé never played in Europe, but he was an icon, a symbol, a hero to a lot of people;

if you wanna look at records, Pelé is the goat; if you wanna look at (wasted) potential, Maradona is the goat; if you wanna look at pure magic, Messi is the goat; if you wanna look at talent+physicality/hard work (some people would say the most complete), CR7 is the goat; they all helped football become the sport that it is today, and the debate will never be over. At the end of the day, it’s all about enjoying the game.

I'd say "the greatest" is the one who inspired you most as a kid. For me, that's Pele. But as I generally played goalkeeper, Lev Yashin comes close.

Johan Cruyff?

Pele was certainly up there along with my childhood heroes...Steve Coppell and Gordon Hill.

Pele. No one else is close. 3 World Cup Championships. 1,000 career goals.

Maradonna was a cheater. Messi is good but he's won one WC (which is quite an achievement, but not GOAT standard).

Question shouldn't even be asked, it's quite plain who's the greatest. I don't even need to mention it, you know who I'm talking about even if you're pushing for another

These kind of comparisons are pointless, just accept that the players of old, Pele, George Best and Beckenbauer would all struggle to make the bench on a second division team today

Nah.

It’s about talent. They played at a time when physical fitness wasn’t as tuned as today, but if they were playing now, they’d have the talent plus modern fitness standards ( maybe not George Best because of his boozing ).

In my lifetime, I’d say Maradona was more talented than Messi but Messi achieved more. Messi also played at a time when defenders weren’t allowed to get away with GBH.

ian....

Question shouldn't even be asked, it's quite plain who's the greatest. I don't even need to mention it, you know who I'm talking about.....

Norman Whiteside?

Pele hands down the GOAT. Absolutely no contest.