Brazil had Pele, Argentina had Maradona - but which nation is tops for football greats?

Let the debate continue! Brazil towers over all and Pele is unquestionably the best of all time. Argentina and Maradona are part of "the rest", and an argument could be made that Italy ranks second in terms of national greatness. Your article reveals a recency bias. You ignore Brazil's 1958 team - - the best of all time in terms of individual greatness. Brazil's 1970 World Cup team ranks second. Most people debating this "greatest ever" question remember the two Argentina World Cup championship teams, but never watched Brazil's 1958 and 1970 World Cup teams. The Argentine World Cup champions were rather modest in comparison. In 1978 Argentina paid off Peru to reach the subsequent phase in the World Cup (in lieu of Brazil), in one of the greatest undocumented scandals in sports history. The Argentine military regime at the time had a propensity, shall we say, for corruption. Your article reveals the same recency bias when comparing players. Looking at the individual greats, Maradona doesn't come ev

In my opinion, Maradona is the greatest football player of all time. His great dribbling ability, speed, strike accuracy, leadership and vision makes him truly incomparable. It is true that his greatness on the pitch was somehow affected by his personal problems but this does not take a cent away from his footballing genius in much the same manner that the unbecoming and rediculous social behavior of Einstein did not in anyway affected how we appreciate his genius in physics. Maradona has, and continue until today, influenced and inspired generations upon generations of footballers around the world. Unfortunately, the war between Argentina and England, the home of the most powerful and influential media, plus the defeats suffered by the English football team in the hands of the Argentineans created an anti-Argentina sentiment among the British media people and the public. This knowingly or unknowingly resulted in the understimation of the talents and performance of Argentine players. On the contrary, the sa

Pele, second in line..Romario.

I'm too young to have seen Pele play, and FIFA have done absolutely nothing to assist the world in this area, they expect us to believe what they say. El "Diego" is the reason I like football, and am an Argentine at heart. In fact, I don't like Brazil. While the debate continues as to who is the greatest ever, Pele played on a team, in fact teams of greats alongside him and shone, so he probably never had to carry Brazil as el "Diego" carried Argentina in '86. One team would have won even without their best player, another may not have made it out of the group stages. But for sheer quantity of greats, Brazil has the upper hand on Argentina. Brazil 1970 was a side full of greats, players that were regarded as the best in their positions for years after they stopped playing, and they continue to produce a high quantity of skilled players. In fact el Diego's hero was Rivelino, a Brazilian. But in spite of this "VIVA ARGENTINA" haha.

Hi there! As a brazilian born after Pele stopped to play I got used to hear that he was the best ever, but... it was long ago. However I just saw a recent movie that shows all his career (Pele Forever, English Title). I was impressed! For the first time I saw lots of his goals, skills, playing everywhere even on defense. He was not only an excellent scorer, he was a complete player, and such expression would become fashion decades later. That is underscored by the comments of his own colleagues. Undoubtedly Maradona was a great player, but his career (summing up all titles, games, reputation, goals, skills, etc) pales when comparing to Pele. Answering the first question of this article, it is difficult to argue against Brazil, but one has to keep in mind that the brazilian population is at least four times bigger than the argentinian one.

Maradona the greatest player ever without question...the game was harder in his time...closer man to man marking,,unlike in the era of pele...

with out a doubt PELE was the greatest player ever to this planet, maradona second i would say. BRAZIL what a gifted country and beautiful 2.

ARGENTINA PLAYS WITH HEART ,WITH ALL EMOTIONS , WITH ALL POWER THEY HAD . THEY DONT WANT TO SHOW A NICE GAME ARTIFICIALLY ( LIKE BRAZIL ) BUT IT IS IN THEIR BLOOD . THE BEAUTY OF THEIR GAMES IS VERY DIFFERENT THAN BRAZIL. WHEN THEY WIN THE WHOLE WORLD BECOME HAPPY AND WHEN THEY LOSE , ALL CRY . BRAZIL BECAME FAMOUS BECAUSE OF OVERLOADED ADVERTISMENTS FROM FIFA AND MEDIA ! FOOTBALL PEOPLE NEEDS MONEY ! AND THEY NEED TO MAKE FAKE LEGENDS LIKE SOME BRASILIAN PLAYERS WHO WERE NEVER BEEN AS GREAT AS OTHERS ! LOVE MARADONA, BATIGOAL , MESSI , KEMPES , DI STEFANO , RIQUELME !

Maradona is the greatest of all time.

It has to be Heskey, no one comes close to him.

There was a James Greaves of Chelsea, Spurs and some Italian outfit. He was a great goal scorer and comes in to the realm of an all time great

My earlier submission was too long, so here goes summary. IMHO, BEST COUNTRY, by far: BRAZIL. No other country comes close. "The rest" are Italy & Argentina, in that order. BEST PLAYER of all time is PELE, by far. Again, no one comes close. "The rest" are probably headed by Maradona, although Garrincha was better in his prime. Beckenbauer, Di Stefano, Yashin, Cruyff, Djalma Santos, Zidane, Zico and many others continue the list, in no particular order. Let the debate continue!

I dont know why brazil and argentina are top of the list think about it if maradonna and pele were playing against the defenders of today i against the likes of terry caragher and ferdinand i dont think they would have been able to do what they did back then teh only6 reason why they are famous because the calibre of players they were up against was poor if they were playing now they would be in teams like sheffield and the best nation has to be France with the like of Dessially Thieery Henry Robert Pires Zinedine Zidane Anelka They ahve produced teh worlds famous strikers Trezegeut

Brazil has had more great players so far,although their star is slowly decreasing in brightness(maybe due to underestimating other nations or pride?).Argentina is also a very great nation and if it keeps up the same spirit,it will go miles ahead of Brazil.

pele no doubt. maradona was great but having seen both players in their prime I have to say that pele is far above maradona. garrincha is above maradona but without the benefit of extensive videos around it´s easy to see why garrincha goes forgotten in this discussion. I am not brazilian but simply a person who enjoys soccer and who was fortunate to witness brazil at its best in 1970 and again the comparison is absurd! argentina has a beautiful style no doubt about it but brazil has something else, something mistical about their soccer and their dominance is so large that one has to be argentinian even to find validity in the claim of equality. brazil tops argentina and pele tops maradona.

We have 5 world cup, they have 2 (1 in argentina with help of Perú), it's enough!