Pele, George Best, Stanley Matthews: What made them great?

The true greats have something quite ethereal about them. They have an uncanny ability to read the play and always seem to position themselves so that it seems that the ball is following them. They make the game seem effortless. I think that it is the way they think that sets them apart and not their physical attributes. Take Maradonna, he's practically a midget, not particularly fast, not a particularly good team player or with a good work ethic, but what he did really counted.

Very well written. Perhaps when using the word 'great' you have to consider charisma. You mentioned having to see the great players live, & it is in the stadium that you feel this charisma, an electricity between the player & the crowd - even the opposing fans' fear when he gets the ball contributes to this. I've been watching football nearly 50 years, & players I remember always having that were, as well as those you mentioned, Charlton, Law, Greaves, Haynes, Henry, Giggs, Cantona, Barnes, Dalgleish, Marsh, Gascoigne, Lineker, Shearer - & a lot more. Current young players achieving that would be Rooney, Ronaldo. I can only talk about those I've seen, & if I put my mind to it could come up with a few more. I'm not saying all of these are all-time greats, but they had that tingle factor, & that is why defenders seldom have it, because they need to do the expected rather than the unexpected.

My verdict on the great players past & present. No disrespect to Best and Beckham but I always felt that their movie star lifestyle made them out to be a lot better than they actually were. Dennis Law was twice the player Best was. As was Bobby Charlton. Other greats - Emlyn Hughes, Tommy Smith, Ron Yeats, Alan Ball, Eusebio, John Barnes and at one stage Ronaldo (Brazilian one) was awesome.