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Karl
Senior Member
USA
914 Posts |
 Posted - Nov 12 2001 : 4:40:05 PM
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The greatest footballer?
Stephen Vasciannie
Right now, the English are on a football high. A few months ago, they clobbered arch-rivals Germany by an incredible margin, and shortly thereafter, they booked their seats for the World Cup finals with a draw against the Greeks.
Following the match against Greece, sports reporters in these northern climes used superlatives to describe the performance of David Beckham, the Manchester United midfield general. Now the Times of London is asking, apparently in all seriousness, Was Beckham's one-man show against Greece the finest individual performance of all time?
This is probably enough to raise a few eyebrows among football experts. Beckham, for all his energy and enthusiasm, doesn't yet have a claim to greatness. Though he may not be a parvenu (or a hurry-come-up, as Jamaicans might say), he is a fairly recent arrivant: showing sparks, but not yet a steady flame of quality. The praise directed at Beckham, however, does prompt the perennial question: who, really, is the best we have known in the history of football? Of course, most Jamaicans, given over to rampant Brazilianitis, will immediately nominate Edson Arantes do Nascimento (who, I suppose, may once have been called Ed, but is better known by the poetic Pele).
From the 1958 World Cup finals, through to 1970, he was the king of the theatre. And, it was a theatre with dramatis personae of scintillating brilliance: to name a few contenders, Eusebio, George Best, and Dennis Law all staked their claims, but none could match the Legend. Pele's deftness of touch, his powers of acceleration, and his imperial presence on and off the ball, place him in a special category marked out for one or maybe two personalities in the history of any sport.
Which sports fan over 40 can forget, for instance, Pele's performance in the 1970 World Cup match against England, in which he forced Gordon Banks to save the greatest goal never scored? And, even if that goal escaped, there were well over 1,000 that shook the back of the net (to use the astute Ian Andrews' favourite football expression). So then, King Pele shall reign. Notice, though, that this assessment is openly constructed on a foundation of bias.
First, this kind of analysis gives almost everything to strikers: defenders, such as Bobby Moore, or mid-fielders such as Bobby Charlton, might as well be policemen in this contest; for, truly, the skills of the guardian and builder cannot be compared with the flair of the man with the finishing touch. Not everything, however, goes to the golden boot; Jairzinho, Gerd Mueller, Fontaine, greetings and respect to you, but the ultimate accolade can go only to those strikers who reach into their own half to dominate the game.
Secondly, my bias is openly in favour of players from the Pele era. This is so not only because of the quality of football played at that time. I expect knowledgeable octogenarians to say that Stanley Matthews, dribbling in his three-quarter pants down the wing for Blackpool and England, could teach the King a thing or two; and others may add that Alfredo Di Stefano, who philosophised that you must be able to do anything with the ball, was so good he had to represent two countries. Maybe; significantly, however, players in the era before widespread access to television cannot really present lasting evidence as to their class, and so, some scepticism may be in order. If we are lucky, we can still see the teenaged Pele bobbing and weaving in Sweden, or soaring in Mexico, as part of an entire game. And from this, we can assess his dominance.
The time factor
Time considerations also work against players in the post-Pele era. Here, however, the risk is not that we might forget exactly how fast Garrincha could run; nor is it that nostalgia may play tricks with the mind. On the contrary, the problem with recent stars is just that: their recency makes us unsure whether they will endure when the mists of history have settled. Johann Cryuff was extraordinary in 1974 (as long ago as that?), but, well, we just don't know if the total football he championed will have a lasting and pronounced impact. Or, moving closer to the present, can we be sure that we will be talking about King Maradona 50 years hence? No doubt, English bookmakers and nationalists will tell their grandchildren about the infamous "hand of God" goal, but how about Maradona's stunning performance in 1986 World Cup semi-finals when he almost single-handedly presented a 2-0 defeat to the Belgians?
The moving finger of history has not yet written the final chapter on Maradona. Until then, however, King Pele should have no shivers, even if the Internet crowd born largely after 1970 dares to attempt a coup in favour of the Argentinian. My own view is that history will be kinder to Edson than to Diego, not least because the latter tended to fall far too often in some matches. Kings need to be more upright, one might say. Of the present lot, the verdict is not even close to formulation, which is why the Beckham hype remains unconvincing. Zinedine Zidane may one day make his claim, given his iron-will, tactical sense, and natural skill, while an in-form Thierry Henry combines the gentle, balanced touch of a prima ballerina, with the goal-scoring hunger of a famished cougar. Watch them, they are among the best of this generation yet, as I say, they still work under the burden of recency.
And what of the local scene, or local players on the international scene? Some of our current heroes have the advantages of professionalism on their side, and are clearly on an upward trajectory towards real, enduring success. However, I would be reluctant to name them, just now, among the greatest Jamaica has ever produced. There was a time in my life as a spectator when I regarded almost every touch of the ball by Skill Cole as a sign of genius, and there are older, wiser voices that mention Lindy Delapenha's versatility and discipline in respectful tones. Some, too, talk reverentially of Syd Bartlett and other stylists never captured on film, and therefore removed from clinical observation with the passage of time.
It may well be that our own greatest player is still to emerge. We can be sure, though, that he can come from anywhere in Jamaica. King Pele, the balla with no equal, most certainly did not fall from the lap of luxury in Brazil -- yet another reason to acclaim his magnificence.
Stephen Vasciannie, a UWI lecturer, is currently a Visiting Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge, England.
Karl
Edited by - Karl on Nov 12 2001 16:41:30 |
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