Pele's 125 best

[Zaagros]

FOOTBALL: PELE'S CHOICE THE 125 BEST LIVING PLAYERS


Independent, The (London), Mar 5, 2004

This is old and I don't know if it has been posted or not but here it is anyways.

PELE HAS upset his fellow countrymen with his choice of the 125 best living players in the world for Fifa, the world governing body.
Only 12 Brazilians are on the list and the omissions have infuriated the country's media. "Pele's list forgets Brazilian stars!" the sports paper Lance declared.
England boast seven players, including David Beckham and Michael Owen. Scotland, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland all have one player on the list in Kenny Dalglish, Roy Keane and George Best respectively.
The list contains no Wales players. It features 50 footballers still playing and 75 who have retired.

ARGENTINA
Gabriel Batistuta
Hernan Crespo
Mario Kempes
Diego Maradona
Daniel Passarella
Javier Saviola
Omar Sivori
Alfredo di Stefano
Juan Sebastian Veron
Javier Zanetti

BELGIUM
Jan Ceulemans
Franky van der Elst
Jean-Marie Pfaff

BRAZIL
Carlos Alberto
Cafu
Roberto Carlos
Falcao
Junior
Pele
Rivaldo
Rivelino
Romario
Ronaldinho
Ronaldo
Djalma Santos
Milton Santos
Socrates
Zico

BULGARIA
Hristo Stoichkov
CAMEROON
Roger Milla

CHILE
Pablo Figueroa
Ivan Zamorano

COLOMBIA
Carlos Valderrama
CROATIA
Davor Suker

CZECH REPUBLIC (and former Czechoslovakia)
Josef Masopost
Pavel Nedved

DENMARK
Brian Laudrup
Michael Laudrup
Peter Schmeichel

ENGLAND
Gordon Banks
David Beckham
Bobby Charlton
Kevin Keegan
Gary Lineker
Michael Owen
Alan Shearer

FRANCE
Eric Cantona
Marcel Desailly
Didier Deschamps
Just Fontaine
Thierry Henry
Raymond Kopa
Jean-Pierre Papin
Robert Pires
Michel Platini
Lilian Thuram
Marius Tresor
David Trezeguet
Patrick Vieira
Zinedine Zidane

GERMANY
Michael Ballack
Franz Beckenbauer
Paul Breitner
Oliver Kahn
Jurgen Klinsmann
Sepp Maier
Lothar Matthaus
Gerd Muller
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
Uwe Seeler

GHANA
Abedi Pele

HUNGARY
Ferenc Puskas

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
Roy Keane

ITALY
Roberto Baggio
Franco Baresi
Giuseppe Bergomi
Giampiero Boniperti
Gianluigi Buffon
Giacinto Facchetti
Paolo Maldini
Alessandro Del Piero
Alessandro Nesta
Gianni Rivera
Paolo Rossi
Francesco Totti
Christian Vieri
Dino Zoff

JAPAN
Hidetoshi Nakata

LIBERIA
George Weah

MEXICO
Hugo Sanchez

NETHERLANDS
Marco van Basten
Dennis Bergkamp
Johan Cruyff
Edgar Davids
Ruud Gullit
Willy van de Kerkhof
Rene van de Kerkhof
Patrick Kluivert
Johan Neeskens
Ruud van Nistelrooy
Rob Rensenbrink
Frank Rijkaard
Clarence Seedorf

NIGERIA
Jay-Jay Okocha

NORTHERN IRELAND
George Best

PARAGUAY
Romerito

PERU
Teofilo Cubillas
POLAND
Zbigniew Boniek

PORTUGAL
Rui Costa
Eusebio
Luis Figo
ROMANIA
Gheorghe Hagi

RUSSIA
Rinat Dassaiev

SCOTLAND
Kenny Dalglish

SENEGAL
El Hadji Diouf

SPAIN
Emilio Butragueno
Luis Enrique
Raul

SOUTH KOREA
Hong Myung-bo

TURKEY
Emre Belozoglu
Rustu Recber
UKRAINE
Andriy Shevchenko

URUGUAY
Enzo Francescoli

USA
Michelle Akers
Mia Hamm

 

[Sly]

No Ali Daei?

 

[Kaz]

No Garrincha?

 

[Anchor Man]

no Hakan Sukur?

 

[westwienmaskulin]

No Garrincha?

well...it just shows AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN what a "passt fetrat" person he is..

Shireh Pele!!!

 

[byebyenow]

no, Luigi Riva

 

[Khorus]

Well, the list has a number of omissions and a few who shouldn't be there. Of note, a couple of his great teammates from 1970 are not on the list, Tostao and Jerzinho. And what happened to Berti Vogts, probably the best man to man defender of his time. And yes, Luigi Riva from the 1970 team should have been there.

BTW, i said top 100 living players, is Garrincha alive? He also forgot Ruud Kroll (sp?) form the 1974 Dutch team, and yohan Repp from 1974 and 78. And what happened to Zharmach, Lato, and Deyna from Poland? What about Yahsin, and Blokhin? There was also a great Austrian player in 1974 whose name I can't remember.

A lot of the players above are better than some mentioned below, like Nakata, Veron, Kempes, Beckham, Keane, Vieri, and Myung bo (Cha boom koon was probably better).

oh, and where the hell is Kaka?

 

[Zaagros]

Yashin is not on the list either, probably the best goal keeper of last century.

 

[Payandeh Iran]

Yashin is not on the list either, probably the best goal keeper of last century.

It is only for the players who are still alive.

 

[westwienmaskulin]

oh, and where the hell is Kaka?

The list is 5 years old. Back then Kaka was still shashoo..

 

[Babr]

The list is 5 years old. Back then Kaka was still shashoo..

LOOOOOOOOOOL

 

[spinhead]

What about Ostad Asadi?

 

[ME]

Mario Kempes
Diego Maradona
Omar Sivori
Alfredo di Stefano

Jean-Marie Pfaff

Roberto Carlos
Falcao
Pele
Rivelino
Romario
Ronaldo
Socrates
Zico

Hristo Stoichkov

Josef Masopost

Brian Laudrup
Peter Schmeichel

Gordon Banks
Bobby Charlton
Kevin Keegan
Gary Lineker

Eric Cantona
Just Fontaine
Raymond Kopa
Michel Platini
Marius Tresor
Zinedine Zidane

Franz Beckenbauer
Lothar Matthaus
Gerd Muller
Uwe Seeler


Ferenc Puskas

Franco Baresi
Giuseppe Bergomi
Paolo Maldini
Gianni Rivera
Paolo Rossi
Dino Zoff

Marco van Basten
Dennis Bergkamp
Johan Cruyff

George Best

Teofilo Cubillas

Zbigniew Boniek

Eusebio


Gheorghe Hagi

Rinat Dassaiev

Kenny Dalglish

Enzo Francescoli

Agree on this, the rest of them were only all right, so many are missing, how can you make a list without Yashin, Shumakher, Kochis, Helmut Rahn, Bebeto, Eder, Filol, Stanley Matheus ....and pick up folks from Japan and U.S.?!

idiot!

 

[byebyenow]

Yashin is not alive guys, this list is only for players who are still alive.
Puskas is there because he recently passed away and this is from five years ago.
And George Best should have been there if he was still alive.

 

[Ali(ISP)]

goerge best died in nov 2005, and his name is there

 

[Tehol Bedict]

Mane is better than Diouf ever was

 

[TeamMeli]

Dide Z man,
I created a similar thread and we had a GREAT DEBATE ON THIS let me find it for you
Guess who I picked as the best?


http://forums.iransportspress.com/i...at-footballer-of-all-time.88429/#post-1243279

Mods please merge this thread into here.
My top 3 were Pele, Maradona and ZIdane.
@Payandeh Iran could you or someone merge this thread, so we don't have multiple ones on the same subject? It is an honest mistake, I did it the other day, it happens to the best of us.

 

[Tehol Bedict]

Dide Z man,
I created a similar thread and we had a GREAT DEBATE ON THIS let me find it for you
Guess who I picked as the best?


http://forums.iransportspress.com/i...at-footballer-of-all-time.88429/#post-1243279

Mods please merge this thread into here.
My top 3 were Pele, Maradona and ZIdane.
@Payandeh Iran could you or someone merge this thread, so we don't have multiple ones on the same subject? It is an honest mistake, I did it the other day, it happens to the best of us.

This thread was from much earlier though.

 

[TeamMeli]

@Tehol Bedict Ok isp that is why hardly anybody responded to my thread cool #Whatever amd don't care. You guys do you it is all good I just find it interesting is all, when i come up woth a topic you say Pilachu ahould be in the starting xi but when he does, we get to have a serious conversation #double standard? loke if we are goimg to comtinue woth this geoup think dog shit them I am Audi 500

Just saying how come when I say something people give me fart answers but when others have the same topic, they get real content? This is Bolsheviksk and a double standard. but whatever discuss the starting di
I dan give answers like i thank "my Johnson and balls are better than Pele. i could iove jackass answers like as well and be mean.
The. When people get upset i can say," Oh that was a satirical answer i was only joking"
One thing about Pele that I must say to be fair- the level of competition is much different than when he played. What there were maybe two good teams and two good super stars at the time, Pele and Eusebio? Not much competition. Like everyone has their limits and I am reaching mine if this is how it will always be, the double standard.
See back then they played FootBRAWL not football, not much skill involved in trying to injure the other guy, like when the French piece of garbage tried to maliciously injure Pele. It was garbage footBRAWL back then. Also, Pele used steal toed boots, that is kind of a natural cheat. it was legal back then. It's hard to compare players from different eras, when the game was much different, than what we see today. The training is better, the teams are more competitive, teams like Iran can hang with the big boys, it's a different world. During Pele's time, Pele in his wildest dream would never think that Iran would tie against Portugal and Portugal has one of the best players in the world. That thought would have been unfathomable so you can't compare different players form different eras. You have to compare the same players in the same era.
Zidane's level of competition in 98 was MUCH Higher than Diego Madrona' in 78

 

[RaminS]

@Tehol Bedict Ok isp that is why hardly anybody responded to my thread cool #Whatever amd don't care. You guys do you it is all good I just find it interesting is all, when i come up woth a topic you say Pilachu ahould be in the starting xi but when he does, we get to have a serious conversation #double standard? loke if we are goimg to comtinue woth this geoup think dog shit them I am Audi 500

Just saying how come when I say something people give me fart answers but when others have the same topic, they get real content? This is Bolsheviksk and a double standard. but whatever discuss the starting di
I dan give answers like i thank "my Johnson and balls are better than Pele. i could iove jackass answers like as well and be mean.
The. When people get upset i can say," Oh that was a satirical answer i was only joking"
One thing about Pele that I must say to be fair- the level of competition is much different than when he played. What there were maybe two good teams and two good super stars at the time, Pele and Eusebio? Not much competition. Like everyone has their limits and I am reaching mine if this is how it will always be, the double standard.
See back then they played FootBRAWL not football, not much skill involved in trying to injure the other guy, like when the French piece of garbage tried to maliciously injure Pele. It was garbage footBRAWL back then. Also, Pele used steal toed boots, that is kind of a natural cheat. it was legal back then. It's hard to compare players from different eras, when the game was much different, than what we see today. The training is better, the teams are more competitive, teams like Iran can hang with the big boys, it's a different world. During Pele's time, Pele in his wildest dream would never think that Iran would tie against Portugal and Portugal has one of the best players in the world. That thought would have been unfathomable so you can't compare different players form different eras. You have to compare the same players in the same era.
Zidane's level of competition in 98 was MUCH Higher than Diego Madrona' in 78

You really think during the 70s the superstars did not include Riva, Rivera, Carlos Alberto, Jairzinho, Tostao, Rivelino, Banks, Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton, Maier, Beckenbauer, Vogts, Muller, Cubillas, George Best, Suurbier, Rensenbrink and Cruyff?
Also it was a Portuguese player (Morais) trying to injure Pele, not a French one. Furthermore Maradona was not part of the 1978 World Cup.