On 29th April, 2014, in the morning, NDTV broadcast an interview with an ex Indian Cricket Captain Saurav Ganguly who said that the soccer player Maradona was better than Pele. Though, I fully disagree with this statement yet as a democratic minded man, I allow him to express his view freely because it is his right to express his view as he feels and not what I feel though I fully disagree with him for reasons indicated below.
Gangully till the age of 13 was a strong follower of the game of soccer which is the craze of every Bengali male child. Then by accident he took up to Cricket and finally turned out to be one of the best Indian Cricketers acquiring even the captaincy of Indian Cricket Team. However, in his heart remained deep love of soccer. Because of his love for soccer he volunteered to be a part of one of the franchises in the forthcoming ISL soccer tournament.
According to me Maradona was a great player and we should be thankful to God for this gift of Maradona to this planet during our time. Such a gifted player comes to this planet only once in many years. Since his retirement from playing about 2 decades back the world is till craving for another Maradona and as per my observation it is not likely to get another so soon.
Though Maradona was a great player during his era yet he was not a perfect player like Pele. Maradona was one legged player unlike Pele who could use both his legs almost with equal ease and efficiency though with his left foot Maradona could make the ball do whatever he wanted. Maradona lacked heading power while Pele was perfect in heading and some of the best goals of his career he scored thru header; the most exciting was the one he scored in the World Cup Final in 1970 against Italy. Temperamentally Maradona lacked discipline and coolness of the mind for this reason he was Red Carded in 1982 World Cup while Pele was very disciplined and cool on the field even when he was kicked by the opponents as it was done in 1966 World Cup against Portugal.
With his right foot Pele could make the ball do anything he wanted except talk. The accuracy of Pele in shooting was far perfect than that of Maradona and in running he could out beat any opponent while Maradona lacked this important attribute. When he officially retired from playing in mid seventies Pele was completing 100 metres in 11 seconds which was the timing of the best sprinter in India including that of mine when at the age of 17 I was declared as the fastest runner of Goa.
Those who did not see Pele playing during his hey days are downplaying his genius but they must know that Pele was the greatest soccer player the world has so far produced. He was the best among the best and according to some soccer pundits Maradona comes on fourth place after Alfredo di Stefano (Argentine) and Ferenz Puskas (Hungary). Like Maradona, Puskas was lefty but the power and magnetism Puskas had in his left leg was much powerful than that of Maradona. Both Stefano and Puskas together made a deadly duo in the front line of Real Madrid in mid fifties scoring abundantly fabulous goals. Since then never again appeared such a deadly duo.
When Pele, Di Stefano and Puskas reached their soccer pinnacle TV facility was not global as it was during the era of Maradona and as such there was much shadow on their soccer talent. Maradona had more TV exposure for this reason he became greater darling of his fans. Many of the Maradona fans missed to see the greatest moments of Pele on the soccer field.
Maradona gained real limelight during his engagement in Italy with Napoli where he was the star player in Serie A but Italian League was not Spanish and Brazilian League. Before joining Napoli he was in Spanish League where he found going very stiff because the standard of soccer in Spain was very high compared to Italian standard. This does not mean he was not a great player, in fact he did extremely well in Italy by single handedly winning the League title for Napoli.
Again, Maradona acquired highest honour in 1986 World Cup where he played a leading role in winning the Championship for Argentina and the greatest game of his life was against England in the same World Cup where he scored 2 goals, one of them was known as “ thru the hand of God” and the other was the goal of the century thru his solo efforts. No doubt it was a great goal but it was facilitated by the weak defence and weak goalkeeping under the English bar by Peter Shilton. As a matter of fact, Peter Shilton was not Gordon Banks (1966 - 1970 WC) who would surely prevent Maradona from scoring both the goals.
Peter Shilton was of national standard while Gordon Banks was of World standard. Similarly the defence of this English team was of national stature and not of World class standard for this reason Maradona managed to fool the entire defence of England from the centre line and score a wonderful solo goal.
Having said what I said above, I must confess that Maradona was really a great player of his era but surely not greater than Pele. Pele is all time great. He had many specialties of which type no other footballer had, namely Feinting, Banana Kick and Play the ball off an opponent Leg. He was the only player who was capable of playing with equal ease on all the eleven positions as he described in his book “Play Football With Pele” where he gives 11 lessons to 11 players. What Pele did on the field no other player did because Pele is Pele and such a player comes to this planet only once in centuries.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim – Goa.
Tel: 7507394349.