He is the only player in history to win three World Cups and is often considered the greatest to ever do it. Brazilian legend Pele has incorrectly been a synonym for the GOAT of the sport despite various players making a case for themselves. As great as Pele was, there’s various myths and exaggerations when it comes to his accomplishments that we fail to acknowledge. Not to say that he isn’t one of the best, but when it comes to the word “GOAT”, Pele falls just short…
- World Cups
One of the most popular arguments that Pele fans love to make is the fact that he won three out of the four World Cups he played in. That is in fact correct but there’s certain details in that argument that are ignored. For example, as great as he was in 1958 when Brazil won their first World Cup, Pele was just a 17-year-old and didn’t even make his first appearance until the last game of the group stage. No 17-year-old has ever been good enough to singlehandedly lead a team to a World Cup like most fans would argue. The 1958 Brazilian side was a sensational side that had a goal differential of +12 and didn’t concede a goal until the semi final. An overall brilliant side that Pele happened to be a part of.
Fast forward to the 1962 World Cup when Brazil successfully defend their title. Brazil became the second and last team to successfully defend their World Cup title. Pele got another World Cup in his cabinet. However, Pele went out injured in the second game of the tournament and wouldn’t play for the remainder of the tournament. Garrincha would step up and help lead Brazil to the title.
After an overall disappointing performance by Brazil in England 1966, they returned in 1970 with arguably one of the greatest teams of all time. Brazil had the likes of Rivelino, Jairzinho and Carlos Alberto amongst others. Brazil’s 1970 World Cup squad is often remembered for their ability to connect flawlessly with each other and by the way they dominated the game in an electrifying manner. Much like in 1958, Pele happened to be the best player on an overall impressive team.
- Goal Record
Pele consistently prides himself for his impressive record for goals scored. According to IFFHS, Pele scored a grand total of 1281 goals throughout his career. However, a lot of those goals came in unofficial friendlies and tour games. Meaning, a lot of those goals were not in official competitions and may or may not be counted. According to statistician Emilio Castano, over 526 goals came in unofficial games or were reported incorrectly. Some of them were even scored against vastly inferior sides in games where Pele’s mighty Santos would score over 10 goals in one game. Even then, Pele never scored more than four goals in one competitive game.
His official total should be 757 goals which is still an impressive amount. That is until you realize that Cristiano has reached 616 goals without club friendlies at just 32 years of age and while playing in some of the toughest tournaments in the World. At the same time, Lionel Messi has scored 584 at just 30 years old age.
3. Level of play
He would only go on to play for two professional teams throughout his entire career: Santos and New York Cosmos. The majority of his career was spent with Santos in an emerging Brazilian league that had little to no competition. Despite Brazil being the dominant national team for most of the 1960’s, their league failed to reflect that. The league was often dominated by the same teams meaning it wasn’t exactly the most competitive. The most “prestige” international trophy that could be won during Pele’s time was the Copa Libertadores. Brazilian teams decided to boycott the Libertadores for several reasons meaning that, for most of the late 1960s, there were no brazilian teams in the tournament. Pele would go on to win just two Copa Libertadores along with the European-South American “Super Cup style” Intercontinental Cup.
As his career began to close, Pele decided to leave Brazil and head to the U.S to play in the NASL. Much like the MLS in recent years, the NASL was a retiree league in which the level of play was never even close to Europe’s. In other words, both were non-competitive leagues where Pele knew that he would instantly become the star of the league with little to no effort. Failure to get out of his comfort zone and deciding to play in inferior leagues. He was with the Cosmos from 1975-1977 and won just one title.
4. Records
Pele is the type of player that depends on his statistics to allow them to be mentioned in the “GOAT” conversation. Partly because of the lack of recordable media that was present during his playing days. However, even as we analyze some of the accomplishments Pele has made, we notice that he doesn’t hold many significant records.
| Pele’s record | World Record | |
| Goals in one World Cup | 6 (1958) | Just Fontaine- 13 (1958) |
| Most goals in World Cups | 11 (1958-1970) | Miroslav Klose- 16 (2002-2014) |
| Goals in World Cup finals | 3 (1958, 1970) | T- Zinedine Zidane- 3 (1998, 2006) Geoff Hurst- 3 (1966) |
| Most goals in a year | 75 (1958) | Lionel Messi- 91 (2012) |
| Most caps for Brazil | 92 (1957-1971) | Cafu- 142 (1990-2006) |
| Most appearances in a World Cup | 13 (1958-1970) | Lothar Matthaus- 25 (1982-1998) |
| World Cups played | 4 (1958-1970) | T- Lothar Matthaus- 5 (1982-1998) Antonio Carbajal- 5 (1950-1966) Gianluigi Buffon- 5 (1998-2014) |
| Club trophies | 26 (1956-1977) | Maxwell- 37 (2000-2017) |
| Most international goals (Men and Women) | 77 (1957-1971) | Abby Wambach- 184 (2001-2015) |
5. Compared to other players
If you compare the great Pele to other players of this magnitude, there’s very little that he accomplished individually that puts him over the others. For example, Pele failed to win any other FIFA-recognized international tournament other than the World Cup. Meanwhile, Roberto Carlos, Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry won the same amount of international trophies (3) while also winning the Copa America/Europe and the Confederations Cup. Players in the golden generation of Spain like Xavi, Iniesta, Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos won back to back Euros and the World Cup. Winning various World Cups is an amazing accomplishment but overall, another great players have won the same amount of titles while conquering different tournaments.
He didn’t singlehandedly take his country to back to back finals like Maradona. Didn’t dominate Europe’s best competitions for more than a decade like Cristiano or Messi. He didn’t win the Champions League like Di Stefano. He didn’t influence the way that the game would be played for years to come like Cruyff. Had Ronaldo not suffered from injuries, there is a chance that he could’ve overtaken the throne as the best brazilian player. There’s even a possibility that his goal record might be beaten by CR7 or Messi.
I’m aware that the things that Pele accomplished throughout his career deserve respect. His resume put him at the top of the GOAT conversation for many years. I’m not claiming that he wasn’t an amazing player. Far from it. I’m simply exposing some truth for people to realize that he just wasn’t as good as people make him out to be. Being an amazing player doesn’t automatically put you at the top of the list. The sad truth that people don’t like to realize is the fact that the great Pele was not actually the GOAT and that there have been better players following him.
Agree or disagree with me? Let me know!
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