Pele and Maradona were not direct rivals but they shared one thing in common, they shared greatness. The two were rulers of the pitch and they are among the absolute best to ever play the game of football. Long before the debate of who is the greatest footballer of all time was narrowed down to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the debate was always dominated by Pele and Diego Maradona. The two football legends hail from South America; Pele from Brazil and Maradona from Argentina. Coincidentally, these two nations are the two football giants of the continent and always carry South America's World Cup hopes during the global showpiece event after every four years. Pele lit up the football world from the late 1950s to the early 1970s while Diego Maradona's star shone brightest in the 1980s and 1990s but that did not stop the comparison between the two legends.

So, who really was better than the other between Pele and Maradona? Diego Maradona scored over 300 club goals while Pele found the back of the net more than 700 times at the club level. Any comparative analysis, however, must take into consideration the variables, including position and clubs represented. Maradona was an attacking midfielder while Pele was an advanced forward. The Argentine played for Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors, Napoli, and Barcelona among others while the Brazilian spent the majority of his career in Brazil with Santos before a swansong in North America with New York Cosmos. European leagues and clubs have over the years been known to be the most competitive given the quality of their football academies, especially in the big five leagues, that is; the English Premier League, the Spanish LaLiga, the German Bundesliga, the Italian Serie A, and the French Ligue1. 

Pele has a superior international record as compared to that of Maradona. His goal tally for Brazil surpasses that of Maradona for Argentina. The Brazilian scored 77 goals for his country during the course of his international career, while the Argentine hit the back of the net 34 times. They roughly played the same number of games for their respective nations which puts emphasis on Pele's goal-scoring superiority. Again, it is worth noting that the two players played in very different positions demanding very different roles as Pele deployed in a more advanced position while Maradona was much more of a playmaker. Pele won the World Cup thrice, the 1958 edition, the 1962 edition, and the 1970 edition while Maradona won the coveted trophy in the 1986 edition although he lost in the final in the 1990 edition. They both appeared in four World Cup tournaments. Maradona's most memorable World Cup goal came in the 1986 quarter-finals against England, the infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal followed by an outrageous solo goal which was dubbed ‘goal of the century'. 

The debate about who was better between Pele and Maradona has been going on for decades and most probably the football world will never settle on one player since both players boast of different superior football qualities that played a key role in the success of their clubs and countries at different competitions that mattered. The football world has over time transitioned from Maradona vs Pele to Ronaldinho from Brazil vs Ronaldo from Brazil and now the debate is largely centered on Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo. Football is always divided between the Argentine and the Portuguese and debates can go hours on end without coming to any logical conclusion. To settle the Maradona and Pele debate without putting it to rest; Cristiano Ronaldo said that Pele was “the greatest player in football history” while Lionel Messi called Maradona the "greatest ever" Opinions will always be sharply divided over the subject matter but let us enjoy what football has to offer for us in the present in the form of Messi vs Ronaldo as the two superstars approach the sunset years of their careers. Young football talents are already sprouting up ready to take the football world by a storm in the names of Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, and Vinicius Junior amongst others.