Is Pele the Bradman of Football?

The death of George Best has raised, among other things, a lot of talk about who was or is the best all-time player. The “rebuttable presumption” is Pele. Does his 1200 or so career goals put him in the same league as Bradman? No-one seems to have scored anywhere near this number of goals. This question raises some issues that are the same as those that apply to cricket and some that point to important differences between the two sports.

The first problem is the comparability of Pele’s goalscoring achievement. When we look at Pele’s record in international matches there’s no longer this wide margin between Pele and everyone else. Indeed, Pele is not the all-time leading scorer; that honour goes to Ferenc Puskas. When we look at the comparability of eras, similar to those that may be relevant to assessing The Don’s record, it is not apparent that this makes Pele look any better. (See earlier posts.)

Football has an even more severe “quality versus statistics” problem than cricket. Earlier this site has included an exploration of the comparison of all-rounders to batsmen. While the approach discussed is far from satisfactory there is no conceivable statistical method for comparing defenders, midfielders, goalkeepers and forwards. So, it is interesting that when discussions among peers comes up that there is a considerable degree of consensus regarding the elite group of names that deserve consideration as “best ever”: Pele, Best, Maradonna, Beckenbauer, Cruyff. Other names that crop up a lot are; Charles, Matthews, Finney, di Stephano, Charlton and Eusebio.

Obviously there are generational and national factors at play here including the selection effect of these as the gleanings from the sources that I happen to read. The focus on George Best in all of the recent punditry gives this a UK bias yet almost everyone recognizes non-UK players other than Best as leading candidates. Personally I don’t entirely agree with this perceived consensus. I need to be convinced that Maradona was the best Argentinian and I give greater weight to the older generation that venerate Matthews, Finney, Charles and Puskas (and di Stephano).

To answer the question in the header, I would say, no, Pele is not a Bradman but the leading contender in a small elite group that also contains Best, Beckenbauer, Cruyff
and Maradona. (Although, as noted in previous posts and above I have personal dissents). In a later post I may try to take a stab at the “next circle”.