On 29th April, 2014, in the morning, NDTV
broadcast an interview with an ex Indian
Cricket Captain Saurav Ganguly who said that the soccer player Maradona was
better than Pele. Though, I fully disagree with this statement yet as a
democratic minded man, I allow him to express his view freely because it is his
right to express his view as he feels and not what I feel though I fully
disagree with him for reasons indicated below.
Gangully till the age of 13 was a strong follower of the game
of soccer which is the craze of every Bengali male child. Then by accident he took up to Cricket and
finally turned out to be one of the best Indian Cricketers acquiring even the
captaincy of Indian Cricket Team. However,
in his heart remained deep love of
soccer. Because of his love for soccer
he volunteered to be a part of one of the franchises in the forthcoming ISL
soccer tournament.
According to me Maradona was a great player and we should be
thankful to God for this gift of Maradona to this planet during our time. Such
a gifted player comes to this planet only once in many years. Since his retirement from playing about 2
decades back the world is till craving
for another Maradona and as per my observation it is not likely to get another
so soon.
Though Maradona was a great player during his era yet he was
not a perfect player like Pele. Maradona
was one legged player unlike Pele who
could use both his legs almost with equal ease and efficiency though with his
left foot Maradona could make the ball do whatever he wanted. Maradona lacked heading power while Pele was
perfect in heading and some of the best goals of his career he scored thru header;
the most exciting was the one he scored in the World Cup Final in 1970 against
Italy. Temperamentally Maradona lacked discipline and coolness of the mind for
this reason he was Red Carded in 1982 World Cup while Pele was very disciplined
and cool on the field even when he was kicked by the opponents as it was done
in 1966 World Cup against Portugal.
With his right foot Pele could make the ball do anything he
wanted except talk. The accuracy of Pele
in shooting was far perfect than that of Maradona and in running he could out
beat any opponent while Maradona lacked this important attribute. When he officially retired from playing in
mid seventies Pele was completing 100 metres in 11 seconds which was the timing
of the best sprinter in India including that of mine when at the age of 17 I was declared as the fastest runner of Goa.
Those who did not see Pele playing during his hey days are downplaying
his genius but they must know that Pele was the greatest soccer player the
world has so far produced. He was the best among the best and according to some
soccer pundits Maradona comes on fourth place after Alfredo di Stefano
(Argentine) and Ferenz Puskas (Hungary). Like Maradona, Puskas was lefty but
the power and magnetism Puskas had in his left leg was much powerful than that
of Maradona. Both Stefano and Puskas together made a deadly duo in the front
line of Real Madrid in mid fifties scoring abundantly fabulous goals. Since
then never again appeared such a deadly duo.
When Pele, Di Stefano and Puskas reached their soccer pinnacle
TV facility was not global as it was during the era of Maradona and as such
there was much shadow on their soccer talent.
Maradona had more TV exposure for this reason he became greater darling
of his fans. Many of the Maradona fans
missed to see the greatest moments of Pele on the soccer field.
Maradona gained real limelight during his engagement in Italy
with Napoli where he was the star player in Serie A but Italian League was not
Spanish and Brazilian League. Before joining Napoli he was in Spanish League
where he found going very stiff because the standard of soccer in Spain was
very high compared to Italian standard.
This does not mean he was not a great player, in fact he did extremely
well in Italy by single handedly winning the League title for Napoli.
Again, Maradona acquired highest honour in 1986 World Cup
where he played a leading role in winning the Championship for Argentina and
the greatest game of his life was against England in the same World Cup where
he scored 2 goals, one of them was known as “ thru the hand of God” and the
other was the goal of the century thru his solo efforts. No doubt it was a great goal but it was
facilitated by the weak defence and weak goalkeeping under the English bar by
Peter Shilton. As a matter of fact, Peter Shilton was not Gordon Banks (1966 -
1970 WC) who would surely prevent Maradona from scoring both the goals.
Peter Shilton was of national standard while Gordon Banks was
of World standard. Similarly the defence
of this English team was of national stature and not of World class standard
for this reason Maradona managed to fool the entire defence of England from the
centre line and score a wonderful solo goal.
Having said what I said above, I must confess that Maradona
was really a great player of his era but surely not greater than Pele. Pele is all time great. He had many specialties of which type no
other footballer had, namely Feinting, Banana Kick and Play the ball off an
opponent Leg. He was the only player who
was capable of playing with equal ease on all the eleven positions as he
described in his book “Play Football With Pele” where he gives 11 lessons to 11 players. What Pele did on the field no other player did
because Pele is Pele and such a player comes to this planet only once in
centuries.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim – Goa.
Tel: 7507394349.
