Maradona Vs. Pele, who is the best ever?

[abhijit_reddevil]

Yes, We are speaking of two of THE best soccer players in the 20th century, Diego Armando Maradona or simply Maradona, the GREAT Argentinian and Edison Arantes do Nascimento aka Pele. The age old debate, who is the best?

My vote goes to, obviously Maradona, being a Argentinian fanboy.. Inspite of all the controversies, he was a genuis when it came to football. Plus I never liked the Brazilians and always supported the opposite team in any match against Brazil.

I could not find a suitable thread while searching, so I created this one to find out what Digit forum members feel about this one.

Read more here:

Maradona: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maradona
Pele: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pele

[Rahim]

^ The biggest difference between the two are:
# Coaches, Journalists & Officials prefer Pele as The Greatest.
# On the other hand The Fans choose Maradona as The Greatest.
This came in the fore when they jointly were awarded The Best Footballers of The Century.

On a personal note, in order to make a choice one has to watch these two play. What i have seen is some footages of both in Sports/Classic programmes. So my choice would be not be an accurate one and more sound like a fanboy.

[csczero]

Maradona is a Cheat

[Vyasram]

Cruijff is the best

He has done things that one can never see again. Most importantly, total football. That's one reason why I say he is the best. He had the best technique and the best footballing brain. Maradona and Pele are great, but they are just good positioners,dribblers and shooters, while Cruijff is out of the box. You dont hear people calling anyone as the 'Next Cruijff' , coz there wont be one, ever.

[Rahim]

Maradona has an edge over Pele in terms of the players he played with.
Pele had the luxury of playing with greats like Jarzinho, Tostaun, Carlos Alberto, Garrincha,etc, while Maradona was the only Gem in his side.
Both are Greats but Maradona is just ahead imo.
Pele relied on his team mates to inflict his greatness. Maradona did it by himself.
Maradona won the 86 World Cup all by himself and came close to doing it all over again the next tournament. He won so much in Napoli too. I know he was a troubled soul but what he did on the pitch should be remembered and not off-it. Fifa has never showed any love for him.

What i dont like is people just discounting the other's talent. Maradona's suporters just say Pele is crap and Pele supporters say Maradone is a cheat.