Not the most overrated but i have always said Maradonna is the best because he was tried and tested in both South America and Europe but Pele was only tested in South America. And you must admit the standard of football in South America is worse.
Unfortunately I wasn't old enough to see Pele play so i can't speak from experience, but the most resounding stats for Pele imo is that at the age of 17 he scored a hattrick in the World Cup Semi Final and two goals in the final. Plenty of other players haven't even made their league debuts by this age and Pele scores two goals in the World Cup final. You cannot argue that this is pretty phenomenal.
Lets not forget people are saying Brazil produced great players back in the 60s so the league must have been great but im pretty sure Brazil still produce exceptional players modern day?
Maradona "What can I say? Pelé lost his virginity to a man."
So childish but I just had to laugh. Great comeback line!
He's definitely not the most overrated player of all time. That would be David Beckham.
LMAO - No. Pele is/was not overrated. Success is comparative: Of course he wouldn't score 1000 goals in the modern game - he was (one of) the best player(s) of his generation and one of the best players the world has ever seen.
Agree with Lee that the Brazilian League was of a better quality in the 70s than it is now and most of the BRA international squad played in Brazil during their dominant period over the 60s/70s, which suggests it really can't have been that bad..
You mention his arrogance but all the best players in the world are arrogant:
You mention Maradona, but he said this about Pelé: "Pelé won by forfeit. I won the people's vote." < Is that not arrogance defined? He also claimed Pelé had a gay affair with a coach at Santos.
Why should Maradona, who was found guilty of taking drugs and served a 15 month ban and cheated his country into World Cup semi-final take all the plaudits? Of course he was a brilliant player but he also had serious issues that, for me, tarnish his impact as someone you (OP) claim is "the best ever".
He scored lots of goals in the Brazilian Leagues, he also scored 77 goals in just 92 international appearances. Maradona scored less than 40 in 91 apps.
Excellent (Hilarious) article by the Guardian, collection of quotes from Pele and Maradona: Pelé and Diego Maradona: Happy birthday to the best | Football | The Observer
Pele receives much more credit than Maradona...most people seem to only remember Maradona as a cheat and drug addict. The latter cracks me up. Coke only hinders your athleticism, and it didn't slow him down. If anything, it only helps prove how great he was. Also, who cares if he had fun and partied and did drugs as an athlete? He was the best player in the world. I don't blame him. Many would have done the same. It's definitely not something to hate him for. IMO a lot of the Maradona hatred simply comes from English haters still bitter about the goal of the century. And no, I'm not talking about the hand of god.
completley agree here with the state of the leagues. How anyone can comment on the quality of the brazilian league compared to europe when in 1960s it would have been lucky to see liverpool on the tv once a month. Nevermind regular footage of the brazilian league week in week out. I base my opinion on the fact that today the brazilian league is a joke compared to la liga, epl, seria A etc.
You may have heard of the real madrid team featuring di stefano and frenc puskas. it won 5 european cups in a row. They played at this time
If Pele only scored that many goals because the League was of poor quality, how come no one else matched him or even came close goal scoring wise?