How many goals would Pele score in today's game?
31Pele is now an octogenarian yet the wider world was introduced to him as a fresh-faced 17 year old in the 1958 World Cup.
Younger viewers might point us in the direction of his current guise: a man with an exceedingly debatable goal count in the face of other excellence – in Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo may have accolades aplenty, the argument may be Messi vs Ronaldo.
But the argument once was Pele vs Maradona.
Pele is alone in some respects: he is the youngest player to play in a World Cup final, the youngest to score in a World Cup final and as a result the youngest player to win a World Cup final.
He is the only footballer to have won 3 World Cup titles, something that is almost guaranteed to never be eclipse.
In spite of injuries forcing his premature retirement from the 1962 and 1966 World Cups, this was a testament to how good he was that – at the ages of 21 and 25 – he was being kicked out of matches based on how good he was.
Injury almost stopped him from competing at the 1970 World Cup – the final World Cup he would play with as part of the Selecao, his final act almost at a World Cup was to lay the ball off to Carlos Alberto in the final against Italy, an assist for one of the greatest goals ever scored.
Yet still there are some that doubt Pele and his 757 goals in 812 games, based on the fact that – unlike Diego Maradona, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi – they have proved themselves in Europe.
But let’s transplant Pele into Europe, into the modern era no less where the cream of the crop in Brazilian football simply have to play in Europe and see how well he stands up in current football.
#Pele #Brazil #FIFAWorldCup
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Voice: Jake Doyle (@jakedoyle93)
Illustrations: Jake Doyle (@jakedoyle93)
Words: Jake Doyle (@jakedoyle93)
Edit: Jake Doyle (@jakedoyle93)
What If Football is a form of footballing storytelling that takes the audience down a different path to our current reality.
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