Pele's list: political correctness, not reality
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Pele's list: political correctness, not reality
Pele's list: political correctness, not reality
By Mike Collett, soccer editor
LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) - So Mia Hamm is a better footballer than Denis Law and El Hadji Diouf is better than Francisco Gento?
Michelle Akers is among the top 125 living players but Jairzinho, Tom Finney, Marco Tardelli, Jimmy Greaves and Gerson are not.
Well according to Pele, who is undoubtedly the greatest footballer ever to have played the Beautiful Game, that is indeed the case.
On Thursday the man FIFA refer to as The King published his personal choice of the 100 greatest living players. Except that the list actually contained 125 names because Pele could not limit himself to "just 100".
Even more surprising, then, that his list did not include some of the greatest players that have ever set foot on a pitch but did include some whose selection appears to be based on political correctness.
There is no doubt that the Americans Hamm and Akers have done wonders for the development of women's football -- but so has China's Sun Wen, widely regarded as one of the top women's footballers of all time, and her name was missing.
More pertinent, though, is the inclusion of their names in the list at all.
FIFA do not allow men and women to play in the same team or have matches against each other. Perhaps Pele would have been wiser to have done a separate list for the 100 best women players of all time.
STRUGGLING PLAYER
The inclusion of Diouf, one of the stars of Senegal's team in the 2002 World Cup finals, but a player who has struggled to make any lasting impact in an average Liverpool team in two seasons in England, is also mystifying.
The list, albeit an "unfinished" version according to Pele, was widely condemned in his native Brazil where Gerson, Jairzinho and Tostao, who all played with Pele in Brazil's greatest-ever side which won the 1970 World Cup, all failed to make the list.
Yet Hong Myung-Bo of South Korea is on the list, as is Hidetoshi Nakata of Japan. Both of those are fine players, but better than Ryan Giggs who has played at the top level for Manchester United for more than a decade? Or better than Ian Rush, his Welsh compatriot and one of greatest scorers in English history?
Any list by its very nature must be subjective. It must create controversy because of who is left out.
But this list, chosen by the world's greatest ever player to mark FIFA's 100th Anniversary does not seem to be based on solid football judgment which should have been the only criteria used. Pele justified his choices at a chaotic news conference in London on Thursday which mirrored the chaos in his list.
He was given a short-list of 300 names and asked to pick 50 current and 50 retired players.
"I could not do that," he said, "so I picked 50 current players and 75 former players. I could have picked 100 Brazilians alone. I tried to make as few mistakes as possible."
Mario Zagallo, who coached Brazil's World Cup-winning side in 1970 and played alongside the 17-year-old Pele in the 1958 World Cup-winning side was just one of those to express his amazement at the list.
"I respect Pele, he was the world's greatest player, but this list leaves a lot to be desired," he said.
Gerson was also unhappy and symbolically tore up a piece of paper purporting to be the list during a live television programme.
Pele was often a winner on the pitch, but he scored something of an own goal on Thursday.
By Mike Collett, soccer editor
LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) - So Mia Hamm is a better footballer than Denis Law and El Hadji Diouf is better than Francisco Gento?
Michelle Akers is among the top 125 living players but Jairzinho, Tom Finney, Marco Tardelli, Jimmy Greaves and Gerson are not.
Well according to Pele, who is undoubtedly the greatest footballer ever to have played the Beautiful Game, that is indeed the case.
On Thursday the man FIFA refer to as The King published his personal choice of the 100 greatest living players. Except that the list actually contained 125 names because Pele could not limit himself to "just 100".
Even more surprising, then, that his list did not include some of the greatest players that have ever set foot on a pitch but did include some whose selection appears to be based on political correctness.
There is no doubt that the Americans Hamm and Akers have done wonders for the development of women's football -- but so has China's Sun Wen, widely regarded as one of the top women's footballers of all time, and her name was missing.
More pertinent, though, is the inclusion of their names in the list at all.
FIFA do not allow men and women to play in the same team or have matches against each other. Perhaps Pele would have been wiser to have done a separate list for the 100 best women players of all time.
STRUGGLING PLAYER
The inclusion of Diouf, one of the stars of Senegal's team in the 2002 World Cup finals, but a player who has struggled to make any lasting impact in an average Liverpool team in two seasons in England, is also mystifying.
The list, albeit an "unfinished" version according to Pele, was widely condemned in his native Brazil where Gerson, Jairzinho and Tostao, who all played with Pele in Brazil's greatest-ever side which won the 1970 World Cup, all failed to make the list.
Yet Hong Myung-Bo of South Korea is on the list, as is Hidetoshi Nakata of Japan. Both of those are fine players, but better than Ryan Giggs who has played at the top level for Manchester United for more than a decade? Or better than Ian Rush, his Welsh compatriot and one of greatest scorers in English history?
Any list by its very nature must be subjective. It must create controversy because of who is left out.
But this list, chosen by the world's greatest ever player to mark FIFA's 100th Anniversary does not seem to be based on solid football judgment which should have been the only criteria used. Pele justified his choices at a chaotic news conference in London on Thursday which mirrored the chaos in his list.
He was given a short-list of 300 names and asked to pick 50 current and 50 retired players.
"I could not do that," he said, "so I picked 50 current players and 75 former players. I could have picked 100 Brazilians alone. I tried to make as few mistakes as possible."
Mario Zagallo, who coached Brazil's World Cup-winning side in 1970 and played alongside the 17-year-old Pele in the 1958 World Cup-winning side was just one of those to express his amazement at the list.
"I respect Pele, he was the world's greatest player, but this list leaves a lot to be desired," he said.
Gerson was also unhappy and symbolically tore up a piece of paper purporting to be the list during a live television programme.
Pele was often a winner on the pitch, but he scored something of an own goal on Thursday.
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Eaglezbeak
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original skeepolah
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Pele'e list is a commercial list....Czech rep. shoulg have had at least 10 players there as well as zportrugal and poland.....This list is lean and anemic...what of the dutch sensations of the late 70's and early 90's???The list is incomplete................... 
Pele, more homework needs to be done...........
Pele, more homework needs to be done...........
The wars fought in the world are only a reflection of the wars fought within people....
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cic old boy
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