Pele 'named' Ronaldo, Messi & Maradona among 12 greatest footballers ever

Pele enjoyed a quite extraordinary 21-year career as a professional footballer.

He made his debut for Santos at the age of just 15 and, a year later, he made his debut for Brazil and became their youngest goalscorer ever, a record that still stands today.

Pele went on to play 92 times for his country, scoring 77 goals and helping them to three World Cup titles (1958, 1970 and 1974).

He also scored 1,279 goals in 1,363 games (including friendlies), before retiring from the game in 1977.

Pele is considered one of the greatest players of all-time, but who does he think are the best players to ever play the sport?

That was a question given to him by MadridistaReal back in 2020.

He replied: “Another difficult question. There will be more than 10 in my time alone. I’ll leave some to answer your question (laughs). Diego [Maradona], Alfredo [Di Stéfano], [Giovanni] Trapattoni, Garrincha, [Johan] Cruyff, [Franz] Beckenbauer, [Carlos] Alberto… [Zinedine] Zidane… Ronaldo [Nazario]… [Andres] Iniesta.”

Pele then added two massive names to his list, as well as an up-and-coming star

“Today we are lucky. Cristiano [Ronaldo] is great. [Lionel] Messi is incredible. The future looks bright for [Kylian] Mbappé,” he added.

Pele then expanded on his selection of Real Madrid legend, Di Stefano.

He said: “Alfredo could well have been the most complete player of the era. He was fantastic. It’s a pity that there aren’t enough videos of his performances, no doubt he would be more popular. Without a doubt, it is one of the standards in what is considered the best.”

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Pele also declared his countryman, Ronaldo Nazario, was the greatest number nine ever.

He said: “‘The