Pele vs Diego Maradona: who was better? The head-to-head showdown...

Long before it was “Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo?” The debate over which player is the greatest of all time has been dominated by High and Diego Maradona.

Pele’s exploits for Brazil and Santos earned him the nickname kingor “The King” when he helped the Selecao illuminate the football world from the late 1950s to the early 1970s.

The South American couple didn’t play in the same period as Ronaldo and Messi when Maradona took over the cloak in the 1980s to 1990s, but that didn’t stop the comparisons.

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The statistics don’t always tell the full story, of course, but they’re useful metrics nonetheless.

So who was really better between Pele and Maradona? Tor takes a look at the numbers and more in the eternal debate.

Pele gegen Maradona: Clubtore

It is impossible to get an accurate comparison due to the conflicting reports on Pele’s goal chart, some of which include goals from non-competitive games, but all of the Brazilian numbers still far surpass Maradonas.

Maradona scored over 300 club goals while Pele scored over 700 club goals. However, any comparative analysis must take into account the variables including position and clubs represented.

While Pele was an advanced striker, Maradona was an attacking midfielder who fell deep into his own half to trigger attacks.

The Argentine also practiced his craft in a wider variety of leagues, playing for Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors, Napoli and Barcelona, ​​among others. Pele, on the other hand, spent most of his career in Brazil with Santos before playing a swan song with New York Cosmos in North America.

That Maradona had to find her way in Italy’s Serie A, which was full of clubs known for their defensive skills, and in the Spanish Primera Division, which at the time featured a number of notoriously tough defenders, has to be recognized.

Pele versus Diego Maradona: International Statistics

High	Stat	Diego Maradona
92	International Hairdressing	91
77	International destinations	34
0,84	Goals per game	0,37

Peles goal record for Brazil is far superior to Diego Maradona’s goal for Argentina.

The Brazilian has scored 77 goals for his country over the course of his international career, while Maradona has made 34 appearances.

Both players played roughly the same number of games, which underscores Pele’s goal superiority. The Brazilian has a record of 0.84 goals per game to 0.37 from Maradona.

Of course, it should be noted once again that Pele and Maradona played in different positions, with Pele often being used in a more advanced position while Maradona was much more of a traditional playmaker.

Pele versus Diego Maradona: World Cup statistics

High	World Cup statistics	Diego Maradona
4	Tournaments	4
14	Appearances	21
12	Tore	8
0,86	Goals per game	0,38

Pele was part of three World Cup winning teams (1958, 1962, 1970) while Maradona only won the title once (1986), despite losing in the 1990 final.

Both players competed in four World Cup tournaments, with Maradona having more appearances overall. The injury has limited Pele’s participation in the 1966 World Cup, which affects his record.

Despite fewer games, Pele scored more goals than Maradona at the World Cup, with 12 goals in 14 games (including goals in the 1958 and 1970 finals).

Maradona scored eight goals in 21 World Cup games, four of them in Argentina’s successful 1986 season, but never in the final.

His most memorable World Cup goals came in the same game – a quarter-final against England. The infamous “Hand of God” was followed by an outrageous solo goal hailed as the “Goal of the Century”.

Pele vs Diego Maradona: who won the most titles?

High	competition	Diego Maradona
3	World Championship	1
2	Intercontinental Cup	0
2	Liberator Cup	0
1	Intercontinental Supercup	0
0	Uefa cup	1
7	Bundesliga	3
0	National Cup	5
0	FIFA World Youth Championship	1
fifteen	total	11

Pele won more titles than Maradona during his playing career.

In addition to three world championships, the Brazilian won the Copa Libertadores twice with Santos, as well as two Intercontinental Cups and one Intercontinental Supercup.

He won six Brasileiro titles with Santos and the NASL Bowl with New York Cosmos. Pele also has 10 Campeonato Paulista titles and four Torneio Rio-Sao Paulo titles (which are not included in the table above).

Maradona was successful in Argentina, Spain and Italy. His most successful period was in Napoli, where he won two Serie A titles, a Coppa Italia, a Supercoppa Italiana and the UEFA Cup.

In Barcelona, ​​the Argentine won the Copa del Rey, Copa de la Liga and Supercopa de Espana, while in Boca he won the Argentine Primera Division Metropolitano.

In addition, Maradona won the youth equivalent of the World Cup – the FIFA Youth World Cup.

Pele vs Diego Maradona: who won the most individual prizes?

High	Forgive	Diego Maradona
1	World Cup Golden Ball	1
1 *	FIFA Player of the Century	1 *
1	Ballon d’Or (voluntary)	1
0	South American Footballer of the Year	2
3	National League Topscorer Awards	6
1	South American Championship (Copa America) Best Player	0

* Pele and Maradona shared the award in 2000.

There’s very little between Pele and Maradona when it comes to unit pricing. Both players won the World Cup Golden Ball while sharing the FIFA Player of the Century award.

France soccer awarded each player a Ballon d’Or of Honor, but Pele was retrospectively considered the “Alternative Winner” of seven Ballons d’Or in 2016, while Maradona was the “Alternative Winner” twice.

Maradona was named South American Footballer of the Year twice and Pele never had the honor because the award didn’t start until the 1970s.

Pele not only won the Golden Ball in 1970, but was also named the best player in the old South American Championship (now Copa America) in 1959.

Both players have won a number of unofficial individual and magazine awards over the years.

Pele vs Diego Maradona: who do football legends think is better?

The debate over who was better between Pele and Maradona has lasted for decades, and the two have even bargained barbs on the subject.

Of course, Maradona believes he was superior while Pele was talking Tor 2017: “I always tell him: ‘Maradona, you can be equal to Pele if you have scored more than 1,000 goals.’

“And he says, ‘I can’t now, but it doesn’t matter!'”

But what do others think in the game?

Gary Lineker Now Lionel sees Messi as the best of all time, but before that it was Maradona who was “by far the greatest player of all time”.

That view was also voiced by the former Manchester United star Ryan Giggs, who believes that Maradona is “the best of all time”.

He said: “Today there are so many strong players like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, but the things I saw in Maradona I have never seen in football history.”

Argentina’s coach who won the World Cup Cesar Luis Menotti He could be forgiven for voting his compatriot, but he suggested that Pele was better than Maradona.

“Best of all was Pele, a mixture of Di Stefano, [Diego] Maradona, Cruyff and Leo Messi, “he said.

However, there is no such contradiction among Brazilians either Zico to tell the world that Pele is “by far the best ever.” Romario once said: “Messi has what it takes to be the best, but first he has to beat Maradona, Romario and finally Pelé.”

The modern equivalent of Pele and Maradona also has different views with it Lionel Messi To call Maradona the “greatest of all time” Cristiano Ronaldo said Pele was “the greatest player in football history”.