Pele is still the greatest of all time, even on paper
Dear Editor,
Ever since people started using the term ‘GOAT’, greatest of all time, I just never liked it because a goat is to be curried.
But I hear people saying that Lionel Messi is this GOAT, and when I remind them about Pele’s record, they say Pele is from a different time. Obviously they do not understand what it means to be the greatest of all time, and that is not the only point on which their judgements are cloudy.
If a person wants to say that Messi is his or her GOAT I have no problem with that, but that is not a fact as the statistics will show different.
Before you can measure greatness you have to know how to measure and what to measure. Indeed, the law of averages is a useful tool because that is what is used to measure Michael Jordan as the greatest National Basketball Association (NBA) player.
Many people cannot count well, much less measure, and I see a lot of these people going around calling people GOATs.
Now here is a player who was just lucky enough to win a World Cup on penalties after five attempts, and this because a 23-year-old player by the name of Kylian Mbappe actually stole the show.
Messi has been awarded seven Ballon d’Ors, but here is a brief history, according to Wikipedia, of the Balon d’Or. Conceived by sports writers Gabriel Hanot and Jacques Ferran, the Ballon d’Or award honours the male player deemed to have performed the best over the previous year based on voting by football journalists, from 1956 to 2006. Originally it was awarded only to players from Europe and was widely known as the European Footballer of the Year award. In 1995, the Ballon d’Or was expanded to include all players from any origin who have been active at European clubs.
After 2007, coaches and captains of national teams were also given the right to vote. The award became a global prize in 2007, with all professional footballers from around the world being eligible. In 2022, France Football modified the rules for the Ballon d’Or. They changed the timing so that the awards were given not for achievements during a calendar year but for a football season. It was also decided that only those countries in the top 100 of the FIFA World Ranking would be allowed to vote.
The award shows a bias in favour of attacking players, which has increased in recent years, especially after 2007. Over time, the award has gone to a more exclusive set of leagues and clubs. Prior to 1995, 10 leagues supplied Ballon d’Or winners, whereas only England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain have supplied winners since 1995. Spain’s La Liga has the most Ballon d’Or winners. Barcelona and Real Madrid have supplied the most Ballon d’Or winners since 1995.
Now Pele has a higher goal conversion rate than Messi career-wise, and we know that goals win matches and the team that wins the most gets the medals. Pele has a 93 per cent conversion rate, while Messi has a 79 per cent conversion rate. Pele has 11 important trophies, while Messi have six.
I really want to congratulate Argentina’s magnificent goalkeeper for giving them this victory and Mbappe who was just phenomenal.
All records and greatness must be played out on the field and not in any room of journalists and so-called experts. Indeed, only when these experts predict the outcome of every game will I ever really take them seriously.
Mark Trought
marktrought@gmail.com