The former world champion coach with Argentina in 1978, César Luis Menotti, placed this Friday the former Brazilian soccer player Edson Arantes do Nascimento ‘Pelé’ as the best of all time above the Argentine stars Diego Armando Maradona or Lionel Messi.
“There is one that cannot be compared, it is impossible. There is someone who, if he played today, would win the games on his own, which is Pelé. Then we have Diego, (Johan) Cruyff, (Alfredo) Di Stefano and now Messi, but Pelé was something else“, declared ‘el Flaco’ in an interview with Radio Splendid.
The former Rosario Central, Racing and Boca Juniors player would also end up at Brazilian club Santos in 1968 where he coincided with ‘O Rei’, with whom he won the Paulista Championship the following year.
“I say this with the certainty of having lived with him for a year playing as his substitute every day. One day Pelé jumped about two meters and gave a 20-meter pass with his chest that left Toninho alone, and Coutinho – Menotti’s Brazilian teammates at Santos – told me: ‘This ‘filho da puta’ is not a soccer player“he commented.
By then the ‘mineiro’ striker was already an established star at a national and international level, having won with the ‘Canarinha’ the World Cups in Sweden 1958 and Chile 1962. He would later achieve a historic treble by lifting the golden cup in 1970 in Mexico.
At the club level, Pelé also had an outstanding performance, winning six league titles and two cups, two Copa Libertadores and two Intercontinental Cup titles against the Portuguese Benfica and the Italian Milan.
Menotti reiterated the idea that the footballer who died two years ago was “the biggest“that he saw in his life.
After his retirement, the man from Rosario had a very successful career on the bench, the peak of which was being able to place the first star on the Albiceleste shirt, to which those obtained by Maradona in 1986 and by Messi in 2022 would be added.
Curiously, he would also win the U-20 World Cup for Argentina in 1979, a tournament in which ‘Pelusa’ was the most outstanding player.
In the end, the former coach of FC Barcelona, Atlético de Madrid, Sampdoria or Puebla declared that, of the current world champion squad, he has a predilection for the Benfica footballer Ángel Di María, a former player – like him – of Rosario Central.
“He is a generous kid… Look, he has been treated disrespectfully without any recognition when for me he was the figure of the Argentine team. He played better than everyone, including the greats, with his character and his little face of nothing. It is a huge joy that they recognize him because he is one of the best players in the history of Argentine soccer in terms of his participation in the world of soccer.“said Menotti.
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