1. Diego Maradona (U have got it abso correct). 2. Pele 3. Johan Cryuff 4. Zinedine Zidane 5. Paolo Maldini (the all time greatest defender) 6. Harald 'Toni' Schumacher (the all time greatest goalie). 7. Michel Platini 8. George Best 9. Franz Beckenbauer 10. Socrates
Well, my top 3 best players are as follows : 1. Pele No one can discuss this. He was, is, and remain the best. He is just unmatchable. 2. Zidane His magical skills are unmatchable. He is just a genius. What to say more really. 3. Ronaldo He is superb in front of of goals. Very opportunist. A wonder striker.
After this list, it comes like this : Platini (what a player and captain he was, outstanding), F. Beckenbauer, J.cruiyff,....
There are three major reasons why Maradona should be considered the best.
1. He had to shoulder the burden of mediocre players in his team and overcame this through his sheer talent.Pele got supporting players who were as good as him. 2. There was no video recording by Pele's game. Maradona faced this problem.Technology enabled his opponents to analyze his style and strategise accordingly.Pele never faced this problem. 3. All along Maradona had to face off-field manipulations.FIFA president Joao Havelange was his worst enemy. He was targeted every now and then.Pele except during 1966 world cup never encountered this.
I remember talking to a one time coach of the Qatar football team, Macedo Evaristo. Thsi man played for Brazil but never in a world Cup and with Pele coming of age in teh national team his place was lost for ever. Evaristo went on to play Club football in SPain where he spent much time with Barcelona. He waoul talk at length in private conversations about Di Stefano and he rated him much higher than Pele claiming that di Stef was deprived because of alack of media networking.
