Usvinder: we get it, you love Maradona. Fortunately, neither your love, nor internet voting can overcome a simple fact: Pele dominated his peers by far greater margins than Maradona. He also achieved greater far results than Maradona. Without cheating too. If you have any PROOF of the opposite, I'm waiting eagerly.
You do realize that in pele's era, every player had big numbers, right? Dont act like pele was torching every player from his era statistically. Last time i checked, the soccer section of this forum chose maradona ahead of pele in thier all time fantasy draft, doesnt seem like im the only one who loves maradona.
Gerd Muller and Eusebio were both putting up monstrous numbers, which peers of pele are you referring to?
During the 4 years from 1978 until mid 1982, Maradona completely obliberated the argentinian league in scoring and goals per game average. So whats your criteria, comparing maradona's numbers in italy to pele in regional state games? None of the top 10 goalscorers for italian league in the last 60 years have an average above .60 goals per game, italy has always been a defensive trap league.
As a matter of fact, Maradona spent 6 seasons from 1978 until mid 1984 with Argentinos Juniors/Boca/Barcelona. During these 6 seasons, he averaged .79 goals per game and a ridiculous amount of assists that are not recorded but all posted on youtube. During this 6 year stretch, no one from the argentinian/spain/german/france/italy/english league had better numbers than maradona. Only zico had a higher goals per game and it was in the brazilian regional domestic league.
I found this very interesting:
Zico's stats in the brazilian domestic league- 123 goals in 212 games
His stats in the brazilian regional/state domestic league- 239 goals in 273 games
Interesting, so in the domestic league hes barely averaging half a goal per game, but in the state/regional league he's putting up pele esque numbers. When zico went to italy, he played center forward. If maradona played center forward in italy, he would have put up big numbers too, that doesnt make him any better as a player.
Maradona was statistically dominant from 1978-1984, then he went to italy as an attacking midfielder. If he stayed in argentina/spain, he would have continued to put up monstrous numbers, that wouldnt make him any better as a player. Its all the trophies that he won with napoli that made him a legend.
From 1978 until mid 1984: Maradona averaged .79 goals per game, Platini averaged .59 goals per game and Karl Heinz Ruminegge averaged .65 goals per game. So your saying maradona didnt dominate his peers? Well he did dominate his peers during this 6 year stretch, then he went to italy as a midfielder and his stats dropped, but he won serie a twice with napoli. He would have continued to put up big numbers if he stayed in spain or argentina, it doesnt make him a better player.
Zico averaged .89 goals per game during that stretch, but as I posted above, his stats were padded because he was scoring alot more in the regional league instead of the domestic serie a league.
No player from 1978-1984 who played club football in argentina/spain/england/france/germany/italy had a higher goals per game average than maradona. Numbers from the brazilian state league are heavily padded as your essentially facing division 2 and division 3 competition half the time. So yes, from 1978 until 1984, Maradona dominated his peers statistically. Then he decided to go to italy and risk his stats to help turn them into a worldpower.
Then there's his career in italy from 1984-1991.
From 1984-1987: higher goals per game average than both karl heinz rumminegge and michel platini.
From 1988-1991: Higher stats than both ruud guulit & lothar matthaus. Marco Van Basten more goals, but way fewer assists and hes a pure center forward.
From 1984-1991, Maradona was the best player of a league that featured Platini, Ruminegge, Matthaus, Guulit, Van Basten, Roberto Baggio. These are all bonafide world class all time greats. Which peers was pele playing against in the brazil league from 1964-1971? Italian Serie A had the best soccer players from all over the world on a consistent basis. It was a much better league, not even close.