Ronaldo, Messi, Pele, Maradona: Mathematical study crowned football's GOAT

The debate over who is the greatest footballer of all-time is one that has raged on for some time and will go on for some time yet.

Pele, Diego Maradona, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are just four players that can be considered the sport’s greatest ever player.

But what does the data say?

Dr Tom Crawford, who works as a mathematician at the University of Oxford, attempted to settle the GOAT debate on behalf ofLiveScore in September 2021.

View the study below…

Dr Crawford’s first task was to come up with a shortlist of 10 players. To qualify, players must have won two or more Ballon d’Or trophies. They then had to score highly enough over seven categories to cement their place in the top 10.

After the numbers were crunched, the final 10 were Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Pele, Diego Maradona, Marco van Basten, Johan Cruyff, Ferenc Puskas, Alfredo Di Stefano, Ronaldo and Michel Platini.

The final 10 then scored points across seven rounds. They were as follows:

Round 1: Club titles

Round 2: International titles

Round 3: Goals for your club

Round 4: Goals for your country

Round 5: Ballon d’Or titles

Round 6: Records

Round 7: Z-Factor seasons

And it was Ronaldo who came out on top as he was crowned football’s greatest ever player. View the final standings below…

10. Johan Cruyff

9. Diego Maradona

8. Michel Platini

7. Alfredo Di Stefano

6 Marco Van Basten

5. Ronaldo Nazario

4. Ferenc Puskas

3. Pele

2. Lionel Messi

1. Cristiano Ronaldo

Ronaldo took top spot, while Messi and Pele joined the Portuguese forward on the podium.

Perhaps surprisingly, the data did not favour Maradona, ranking him as just the ninth best footballer ever,

Dr Crawford concluded: “As a massive football fan, I have long debated with my friends who