Pele: Messi Must Surpass Neymar To Be The Best Ever (VIDEO)

Santos' Neymar celebrates after scoring his second goal during a Copa Libertadores match against Brazil's Internacional, Wednesday, March 7, 2012.

By Daniel Edwards, Goal.com

Brazilian football idol Pele has restated his belief that Neymar is a better player than Barcelona star Lionel Messi, and argued that the Argentine must first overcome the young Santos star before he can challenge 'O Rei' as the greatest to ever play the game.

The three-time World Cup winner was speaking on Tuesday at a press conference marking Santos' centenary celebrations in April 2012. Never shy about publicizing the ability of Neymar to the press, the 71-year-old pushed the youngster ahead of Messi in his list of the world's current stars.

"Now everyone is talking about Messi, he is a star. But [to be the best ever] he must first become better than Neymar," he asserted. "At the moment Messi is just more experienced."

The Brazilian also played down the public feud he has allegedly maintained with Diego Maradona, insisting that there is no bad blood between the two men.

"You [journalists] are always saying that I am Maradona's rival, but it is not true. I was never his rival, and he was a great attacking midfielder," the legend explained.

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Comments

[Nick Nazari]

02:00 PM on 10/09/2012

Pele talks high of Neymar because he is brazilian. If Neymar was from Columbia Pele would not even know him. Let's recount the relatively recent match Barca-Santos 4-0 in the Toyota Cup. Messi had two goals while Neymar has been invisible.
Not only Messi and Ronaldo are much better than Neymar. Think of Falcao from Atletico Madrid. Neymar did not do anything significant to be compared to Messi. He is physically skinny and did not prove yet the technic in full speed like Messi. The number of goals by Messi si much higher in a much more difficult competition.

[LeonellGT]

08:12 AM on 06/02/2012

Another reason why people mention World Cup achievements is because the WC is 'more equal'. In club football usually the richest ones take the titles, because they have the money to buy the best players. FC Barcelona is the exception because they trained half the team in their youth program. I also don't think that players necessarily have to play in Europe to prove their abilty. (That's where a WC comes in.) Case in point: all the players having come from outside, excelling and enriching European competitions. We know their names Maradonna, Romario, Ronaldo, Ronaldihno, Eto'o, etc. They kept doing in Europe exactly what they were doing back home. My point is: whether he plays in Argentina, Brazil or Europe, great skill is great skill.

[LeonellGT]

07:42 AM on 06/02/2012

Messi or Neymar. Real quality will have to be decided on the soccer field. It must translate into goals, assists and titles/cups. The World Cup is important because it's the most prestigious one. Messi has already proven his worth by all the titles won, goals and assists. But really, which one is the best? It's too early to tell. Not until both players have ended their careers and their stats compared will we find out.

[KirkDiggler]

02:12 AM on 04/22/2012

Pele is delusional.

[bluedog78]

10:53 AM on 04/13/2012

Didn't Messi and Barca beat Naymar and Santos in the Club World Cup not too long ago.

[Chris Chung]

11:41 PM on 04/12/2012

Pele said the same about Robinho. In international play, R was mediocre to neat, but inconsistently. Let's see how Neymar plays on the world stage, where Messi has already lived up to his La Liga reputation. That Santos squad looked solid in this video. Team Brasil should be amazing.

[ElCojonuo]

08:03 PM on 04/12/2012

What's he gonna say ?
Neymar is from Santos, P's home town.

[RRRead]

07:52 PM on 04/12/2012

"He forgot to take his pills"
~Maradona

[messigol]

05:11 AM on 04/12/2012

bele! you need some medicine

[mfoto1986]

03:24 AM on 04/12/2012

Pele --- man I love your game ever since I was a kid but wtf are you smoking these days???

Naymar?? On the same sentence as Messi?? Can someone tell me what the kid did so far to even be mentioned on the same sentence with Messi??? Someone?? Please?? LOL

[theprogressiveanalyst]

12:22 AM on 04/12/2012

Pele's statement is idiocy. Neymar still plays in his domestic league. Until he plays in Europe there is no telling how good he is for sure. Messi is clearly the best player in the world and has won the award for that twice. An equivalent would be to say that some player playing on a European basketball team is the best in the world when everyone knows the best play in the NBA.

[Mansa]

09:43 AM on 04/12/2012

The "best player" label in soccer is absurd. There are goalkeepers, strikers, midfielders, etc. So what is Messi? The best striker or best forward, etc. should be the question.

I believe what Pele said--in Portugese, so translation issues here--is that Messi is not the best player in the world and that he will have to contend with Neymar later.

Messi has a great set of midfielders who are very accurate passers and dribblers and he himself--being short with very short legs--is very good dribbler with low center of gravity. So the Iniesta and Xavi create the openings for him most of the time and he just does the clean-up work.

But Ronald is more athletic and better to see play. But there are several others who are extremely talented players who may not have the luck to play for Barcelona or Real Madrid.

[Aleks Rodriguez]

03:20 PM on 04/12/2012

Of course it isn't absurd. It's a title given to the most dominant player regardless of position. Messi is easily the most dominant player.

The rest of what you say is insanely false.

First off the player who assists Messi the most is Dani Alves, not Xavi or Iniesta, In fact Iniesta assist numbers are pretty low.

Second Messi has more assists than any other player on his team and it has been that way for 2 years in a row already. So not only does he score over 50% of his teams goals, since the beginning of 2012 Barca have scored 59 goals in all competitions, Messi has scored 40 of those, he also assists more than everyone Overalll he contributes to over 70% of Barca's goals. Try to spin that either way you want but the numbers don't lie. And by your logic since players are so lucky to be playing for Madrid and Barca how come no other player from Barca scores even near the amount of goals Messi does. Even Eto'o in his primer, ROnaldinho in his primer did not score as much as Messi. Ibrahimovic when he came to Barca was a flop despite being one of the best strikers in the world.

Your logic doesn't work.

And Ronaldo being more athletic is irrelevant in football.

[Jason Muscat]

11:42 PM on 08/14/2012

WHAT! So this person is saying, let me get this straight now, that inorder for someone to be the best he must play in Europe?! WTF! What a kid like remark that is! Are you serious? You should go and do some coke with Maradona. Hey not pickin on Diego he was my favourite player back in my days, but come on! Its too early to tell by far. What Pele said should of not been said, okay, but even what Diego said not good either. And what this person just said, takes the cake! You don't have to play in Europe to be the best. There could be someone who is the best ever and could be in Grenada! Who knows, just make sense when you make your statements tool.

[Nick Nazari]

01:48 PM on 10/09/2012

You don't know football! European championships are toughest and best! Neymar is not physically to play in Europe. He is not best. Maney above him. Pele is kidding himself.

[Jason Muscat]

11:12 AM on 11/07/2012

AGAIN NEYMAR IS THE BEST, HANDS DOWN!

[Fidel Kabassu]

12:16 AM on 04/12/2012

Pele is the greatest ever.

[mfoto1986]

03:25 AM on 04/12/2012

Yea--- But his comment is the most 1d10tic comment I have heard so far??

Messi must be better than Neymar?? Really?? LOL

[RRRead]

07:44 PM on 04/12/2012

That's what FIFA wants you to believe....

[Cratewasher]

11:39 PM on 04/11/2012

Go to you tube and watch highlight reels of both Neymar and Messi and decide for yourself.
It's obvious to me that Messi is the best right now.

[OH canada]

10:27 PM on 04/11/2012

right now

1. messi
2. ronaldo
3. van persie

[RRRead]

07:46 PM on 04/12/2012

I think Rooney and Aguero are better than Van Persie.

[KirkDiggler]

02:15 AM on 04/22/2012

Van Persie is doing more with less.

[OH canada]

10:23 PM on 04/11/2012

old age is catchin up to pele

[Mansa]

09:46 AM on 04/12/2012

How so? Messi was a flop in the last World Cup and his national team Argentina is almost last in South America. Messi has played some 67 matches for Argentina and scored 23 goals. Not the Messi of Barcelona. In South American football nobody fears Messi.

[OH canada]

02:23 PM on 04/12/2012

incase you've missed football in the past decade, its not about wc anymore, its about the champions league.

[Aleks Rodriguez]

03:24 PM on 04/12/2012

False. Messi was Argentina's best player in the WC and contribuited to almost half the goals the team scored. He was nominated for best player in the tournament and Spain's coach Del Bosque, who won the thing, said Messi was the best player in the tournament for him.

False again on Argentina being last. Argentina are currently tied for first place in the South American 2014 qualifiers. Messi is currently 3rd in scoring so far.

Not to even mention that Messi mostly plays as a midfielder for Argentina, for Barcelona he plays a completely different position with completely different roles.