Pele vs Maradona
Pele was so good he was the only player ever declared a "Natural Resource" by his country and paid 1 million a year so he would stay in Brazil...that's in the 60's when the best of the best pro athletes in the world were lucky to make over 100k a year...
Pele averaged over a goal a game in his professional career, scored his 1000th goal in 900 games! This is compared to a USA baseball player hitting a home run in every game!
Pele was the most popular athlete in the world, and the most recognized, Ali was 2nd...
Pele was an ambassador for the sport, when he signed to play here in New York it was the beginning of a new era in American soccer...
Maradona was also a great player, amazing skill, I don't dislike him for being arrogant or a drug user, I dislike him because he was a MAJOR drug trafficker and a bad influence on our youth!
In the 50's thru mid 70's St. Louis was the only city in the USA that soccer was popular in, in 25 year stretch a St. L team won every Junior and Senior National Championship except 3 I believe, I played on 2 of them....the NCAA final four for years was 3 schools made up of mostly St.L players, and UCLA with all Mexican players LOL
In those days we could watch a Bundesligue game every Sunday morning, our only glimpse of international soccer was watching Gerd and Dieter Mueller, Breckenbauer, and I remember thinking "Why do they always go backwards with the ball and pass it back and forth endlessly"...the camera angles were terrible, it was always on the ball and you couldn't see what transpired off the ball most of the time.
In 1969 I believe Pele and Santos came to St. Louis on a US tour to promote soccer, the stadium was standing room only, and it was a historic event for St. Louis....all I remember thinking after watching that game was "Man, ALL THOSE CHAMPIONSHIPS AND WE SUCK AT THIS GAME". In 1972 several of my friends played on the US Olympic team, when they got back they all said it was embarrassing, the scores weren't too bad but we NEVER had the ball more than a few seconds, then we didn't touch it for 5 minutes LOL
Now, thanks to the ground work laid by people like Pele, European club influence with their camps, soccer academies, soccer is huge here on the Amateur level in every city.
Maradona influence can be seen here too on any given day, we call them "Crack Houses"....
another memorable Maradona moment, the handball goal vs England...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ccNkksrfls&feature=kp