Before the Balon D’or winner was announced on Monday night I had already bragged about how Cristiano Ronaldo would be named the best player on earth at the office (Yes I gave so many reasons why he should win it). Well the rest they say is history. Now to the story at hand. Who really is the best player of the 20th century, as in the best player to ever play the game? Some people would pick Pele while some would tilt it Maradona’s way. Neither of the two players for me and that’s me being honest. If I was holed up in a corner and asked to pick one of the two of them who would I pick? It’s not a tough ask in my opinion, I will definitely pick Maradona all day everyday.
Edson Arantes De Nascimento aka Pele was a great player no doubt but I wasn’t born in his era, I only saw clips and heard stories and if he can score over a thousand goals in his playing career, then football must have been way too easy then. He won 3 World Cups with Brazil which is very commendable to be honest. In the case of Diego Armando Maradona, I was lucky to watch him play even though I was forced by my immediate elder brother back then. My belief as a little boy was why should I be watching those men play on TV when I can as well knock the ball around with my friends. The first Maradona game I saw was Argentina versus Italy in the semi-final of the 1990 World Cup (Bear in mind I didn’t see this game live) which Italy hosted. Maradona was pure class and despite going a goal down, the Argentines led by the little Maradona kept pressing forward and got an equalizer through Claudio Cannigia (Nigerians would probably never forget this dude). That was the first time the Italian defense was breached in the tournament. Argentina won the game 4-3 via penalties though they went on to lose in the final to Germany. From that moment Maradona became the player to watch for me (he was already the player to watch for people born in the 60s/70s). And please google Maradona’s goal against my beloved England in the Mexico 86 World Cup. Not the hand of god goal o, the one where he dribbled past 5 English plays. Oh my GOD great goal.
Now we all know Maradona for me was a better player than Pele. Who was a better player in your opinion? You can respond by dropping your comments in the box.
Thanks guys, hope you had a great holiday? Mine was just there jare though a friend came over and I played with the amazing Fifi too.
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