"Ronaldo is not another Pele"

Hong Kong, Feb 25: You don't look for another Beethoven, or another Michelangelo, so don't bother looking for another Pele, says Brazil's th...

Hong Kong, Feb 25: You don’t look for another Beethoven, or another Michelangelo, so don’t bother looking for another Pele, says Brazil’s three-time World Cup winner.

Pele, who fancies his nation’s chances for this summer’s World Cup, praises their centre-forward Ronaldo as the best striker in the world, but with a huge smile he dismisses comparisons.

“He is a striker. He is a player who gets the ball and scores a goal. He is not a player who prepares the game, who comes from behind, you cannot compare Pele with a player like that,” explains the man many rate as the best player ever to lace up a pair of football boots.

Story continues below this ad

Ronaldo, playing for Inter Milan, was last month voted Fifa Player of the Year for the second year in succession and at the tender age of 21 has been dubbed the new Pele by experienced observers such as Yugoslav coach Miljan Miljanic.

“People want to try to find a new Pele. They couldn’t do that,” Pele saidwith the broad smile which now makes him more money than his magic feet usedto. “You don’t find another Beethoven, you have only one Michelangelo. In music you have only one Frank Sinatra and in football you have only one Pele.”

It doesn’t come over as arrogance, but as confidence of his place at the top of the soccer pantheon.

Neither will there ever be another team like the one Pele masterminded to World Cup victory in 1970 with a 4-1 win over Italy in the final.

Story continues below this ad

Would that team, boasting such greats as Tostao, Rivelino, Jerson and Carlos Alberto win France ’98 if they could be brought back in a time machine?“No problem, we should win again.”

But you don’t have to be Brazilian to get into the all-time greats list of the country’s popular sports minister.

“I saw a lot of good players — Banks, Yashin, Beckenbauer, Bobby Moore, Cruyff, Eusebio… George Best was one of the most astute players with the ball, but he was crazy, Di Stefano of Real Madrid…”

Pele singles out the late Bobby Moore, who captained England to a home victory in the 1966 World Cup, as thetoughest defender he played against.

Story continues below this ad

“The toughest marker was Bobby Moore, because besides being a good player he never played unfair….. A lot of defenders they stop forwards with a dirty game.” While having a few harsh words for veteran Brazilian coach Mario Zagalo’s Modus Operandi, berating his inability to choose a settled team and stick with it, Pele, here with Hong Kong Bank and MasterCard to launch a new World Cup credit card, is looking forward to the World Cup.

His football philosophy is certainly not trapped in the 1960’s and ’70’s and he has some fairly radical ideas on how the game can be changed for the better.