The sad thing is a lot of the magic created by these genius players is lost forever as the cameras just weren't available. I can remember watching Hoddle in his prime, thinking he would score just about every free kick we got outside the box, and he usually did, but most of them are not recorded for posterity.
Yes I did mean that. Match of the day in the 70s I think had one match, although might have had very limited highlights of another.
Yep a lot of Hodd, but even more of Greaves and Pele is lost forever, because of lack of TV coverage. But the impact Pele had on me during the 1970 World Cup was indelible. Add that to his previous achievements, and for me he remains the best ever.
It's sad that for those of us who never witnessed the man in the flesh all that remains is a few grainy youtube highlights. By all accounts I've missed out, and he certainly looks a class act from the videos I've seen, and looks light years ahead of his peers at the time in terms of skill and ability.
Very true. Pele saw, and did things that no other player of his time could conceive of, let alone do!
The Brazil team for team 1970 was like watching football from another planet, no team has ever had the impact on me in sheer footballing terms that that team did. t was the first World Cup I watched in colour on a decent TV, and wow did that tournament shine. They had proper panels for the first time, ITV I think had Clough, Allison, Crerand, it was explosive stuff. Brazil had five world class attacking players, Jair, Tostao, Gerson, Rivelino and El Rey, the King himself, Pele. They were simply sensational.
Wycombe struggled all season, starting the weekend at the foot of the table. They sign The Ginger Pele and they win 5-0. Could the Viagra flogging one have managed that, eh?
Pele did all this at a time when the weight of a football was a tonne and the football boots were made of thick tree bark,. Can you imagine what he might have done in todays game using modern equipment. IMO he was the best ever.
One thing that always annoys me about the Pro Evo games is how they overrate certain teams (namely England and Brazil), so you get utterly ludicrous comparisons like Pele being inferior to Ronaldo and Adriano, or Bobby Moore being a poor man's John Terry. New isn't always better - compare the current Hungarian side to their 1954 team.
