The football world was united in grief last week following Pele’s death at the age of 82.
The Brazilian icon, regarded by many as the greatest footballer of all time, passed away on December 29 following a battle with cancer.
The only player in history to have won three World Cups, three days of mourning were declared by the Brazilian government after Pele’s death was announced.
Who did Pele think was the greatest footballer ever?
On numerous occasions Pele expressed his belief that he was the greatest player in football history.
For example, in 2015 he told Spanish outlet Marca: “Please forgive my lack of modesty, but I’ve never seen a player as good as Pele was in 1970.”
Many would concur with the late Brazil star’s opinion, although just as many would argue that Diego Maradona and recent World Cup winner Lionel Messi deserve the title of football’s GOAT.
Which other footballers did Pele think were among the greatest?
Aside from himself, though, who did Pele believe were the greatest footballers in history?
Well, in 2020 the legendary forward conducted an interview with MadridistaReal.com, and he was asked to name his top 10 best players ever.
“Another difficult question,” Pele said, before giving the question some thought.
“There will be more than 10 in my time alone. I’ll leave some to answer your question (laughs). Diego [Maradona], Alfredo [Di Stéfano], [Giovanni] Trapattoni, Garrincha, [Johan] Cruyff, [Franz] Beckenbauer, [Carlos] Alberto… [Zinedine] Zidane… Ronaldo [Nazario]… [Andres] Iniesta.”
Some interesting names there, especially Trapattoni – although the Italian did once nullify Pele during an international friendly at the San Siro in 1963.
Pele named two of his former Brazil teammates, Garrincha and Carlos Alberto, and the man who he found himself constantly compared to in later life: Diego Maradona.
In terms of the modern era, Pele found room for both Zinedine Zidane and Andres Iniesta – two of the greatest midfielders of their generation who produced iconic moments in the biggest matches.
On Alfredo Di Stefano, Pele added: “Alfredo could well have been the most complete player of the time. He was fantastic. It is a shame that there are not enough videos of his performances, it would undoubtedly be more popular. Undoubtedly, it is one of the standards in what is considered the best.”
And on Ronaldo, Pele commented: “‘The Phenomenon,’ his nickname says it all. Ronaldo, it could well be the best ‘9’ of all time. He was amazing. The size, the speed, the skill, everything fluid. I haven’t seen that combination since then.”
However, Pele extended his list of 10 names to 12, adding: “Today we are lucky. Cristiano [Ronaldo] is great. Messi is incredible.”
He couldn’t exactly leave out those two, could he?
What did Pele say about Kylian Mbappe?
And he also tipped Kylian Mbappe for big things, adding: “The future seems bright for Mbappe.”
Mbappe, 24, recently moved level with Pele for number of goals scored at FIFA World Cup tournaments.
It’s taken the France superstar just two World Cups to net 12 goals and it feels inevitable that he’ll go on to become the competition’s all-time leading scorer.
Only Messi and Just Fontaine (13), Gerd Muller (14), Ronaldo Nazario (15) and Miroslav Klose (16) have scored more at the time of writing.
Source: givemesport
