yes, well you cannot compare players from different times. In his time Pele was the best player in the World. In 1958, he was 17 and was the first black player in the Brazilian national team. There was some heat because of that. He went there and destroyed the prejudice and the adversaries. In the 1970, he wasn't playing anymore, but he did a comeback, getting in shape and winning the World Cup in Mexico with an outstanding performance. Was Maradona the best of his time? I don't agree. He was the best in his prime time, but it was no longer than 4-6 years. In the 80s, 90s we had definitely other players which were as good as him or better (depending on the time period): Socrates, Zico, Lothar Matthaus, Michel Platini, Hugo Sanchez,Ruud Gullit, its a long list. In the 90s even longer.
Pele won 3 world cups. He won 2 world titles with Santos. Santos used to travel around the world like the globetrotters because of him. He scored more than 1000 goals.
But Pele played at a time where football was not as polished as today. That also includes Maradona. Messi, Ronaldo are much much better football players than them both. But of course with the strong competition today it is a lot harder to accomplish what Pele and Maradona did.
Football is a team game, and that is a lot more true today than three, four decades ago.
you are comparing apples with oranges. You cannot compare football from the 50s,70s with football from today, simply because the whole society changed. If football wasn't as polished as today, to out stand in this environment is even harder. Every injury could mean the end of your career. Pele was raised poor, served the army, played professionally from 1950 - 1977(!!)
Messi in another hand is "professional" since he was 6. He moved to Barcelona at age of 10 to go through an hormonal treatment and since then he is exposed to professional football. Such chance was impossible back in the 50s for a black kid in Brazil or anyone else actually.
