Brazilian footballer Pele turned 80 on Friday. A number of footballers, past and present, and many Brazilians expressed their wished to the Brazilian star. Amongst these, Diego Armando Maradona, who for many years, gave life to the off-the-pitch dual on who is the best footballer ever.
In his greeting, Maradona, hailed Pele as the ‘KING’. Perhaps making a closure to the eternal debate. Who knows….
Despite not being a rivalry that was experienced on the pitch, Diego Armando Maradona and Pele are the ultimate enemies in football history.
This debate between Diego Maradona and Pele began around 1982 when Maradona proved that he would become the best player in the world, and dominated throughout the whole decade by playing a total of two consecutive World Cup finals.
During his career as a professional player, Pele also played a total of two finals but he is credited with three of these medals because his national team also won the 1962 World Cup in Chile.
For this alone, the Brazilian legend is considered as the best player in football history by many.
However, Diego Maradona’s irruption in football is one of the biggest surprises from the time and it sparked a very heated discussion between journalists about who is the better player from the two.
This fundamental disagreement dragged both players into the conversation, proving that both of them wanted to occupy the throne and leaving this debate wide open for many generations to come.
Despite having started their relationship on a good note during the start of the ’80s with an encounter that ‘El Grafico’ journal documented, both legends went on to create one of the biggest rivalries in football from each of their corners.
Maradona kept playing throughout that decade and Pele wasn’t able to defend himself from the pitch.
