ah good lil read in light of the current thread
Although Diego Armando Maradona didn't hesitate in affirming to Catalan paper 'El Mundo Deportivo' that "Ronaldinho has inherited my throne" after seeing the Gaúcho force the Santiago Bernabéu stadium into a repeat of the sort of applause last squeezed out of Merengues when 'El Pibe' visited the Madrid coliseum in his 1980's Azulgrana shirt, Pelé is holding back.
'O Rei', who recently buried the hatchet with his Argentinean counterpart on Maradona's TV show 'La Noche Del Diez', surprised some with his downplaying of the status many fans and pundits have awarded Ronaldinho Gaúcho: the best footballer in the world. In declarations that could be either interpreted as commendable prudence or outright jealousy, Pelé was economical with his praise.
"Right now he may be the best in the world, but Brazil produces a lot of great players. We shouldn't forget athletes like Zico, Sócrates and Falcão. Romário was fantastic when he played in Spain (Barcelona / Valencia) and Holland (PSV Eindhoven). These are phases. He's been giving us a lot of happiness with his play recently, but we need more time to decide", commented the King.
Marco Antonio Parizotto, a marketing exec responsible for exploiting the Pelé trademark over the next 40 years, was rather too scathing in his attempt to raise 'O Rei' by giving Ronaldinho a rather undeserved kick in his pearly whites. "As soon as Ronaldinho stops playing the whole world will forget him. Pelé is a myth, even 30 years later" the rather aggressive suit blared to local reporters.
Pelé seems to have (unwittingly?) used the current Ronaldinho frenzy to pump his own financial interests. After all, the objective of the partnership of the 'athlete of the 20th century' with Parizotto's 'Prime Licenciamentos e Participações' (the name of the marketing firm) is to exploit the pulling power of Pelé as the genuine Brazilian number 10 of all time.
Highlighting the glaringly obvious point rather unnecessarily, Parizotto lashed out again. "Pelé is the owner of the number 10. Before him it was just a number. Businesses will have to bow down to the fact. Thanks to Pelé, the number 10 is used by the best in the world today." Although crude, rude and driven by lust for lucre, perhaps the yuppie has a point behind all the snarling.
Ronaldinho has only really been at the forefront of football for two years. Despite forming part of the 2002 World Cup winning seleção, Dinho took a back seat to both Ronaldo and Rivaldo. At PSG he marvelled from time to time, but was criticised by many as a 'jongleur' (juggler) rather than a decisive, objective player. Even at Barça his first six months were a let down for some still stinging at Madrid's "robbery" of Beckham - let's not forget that Ronaldinho was Joan Laporta's 'Plan B'.
So it's only really been since January 2004 that Ronaldinho has managed to hone his game to a level where he strikes a mix of fear, awe and respect into all adversaries honest enough to admit it. In other words: coming up to 24 months at the top. To already put him shoulder-to-shoulder with either Pelé or Maradona does seem rash in this light - the Gaúcho is just getting started in comparison.
The number 10 is more associated with Diego or Edson due to the cumulative decades they spent wowing football fans all over the world and the truckloads of trophies they helped haul in for their clubs and countries. Ronaldinho missed the Grêmio golden age, was a novelty in a PSG overshadowed by Monaco and Olympique Lyon, and may be about to fill Camp Nou's trophy room to the brim, but has only bagged a single piece of silverware in the 'Ciutat Condal' to date.
Then again, who can deny that in today's globalised context Ronaldinho is even more closely associated with number 10 by millions who never even saw Maradona or Pelé so much as touch a ball (the above photo excepted)? Every breathtaking move he makes is repeated across the world, every goal lovingly replayed in hundreds of countries, commented on in dozens of languages.
Pelé started in the days when football was recorded in shaky black-and-white celluloid; Diego was fizzling out on white powder when the internet was still a geeky baby; Ronaldinho Gaúcho is entering his prime in a time of ADSL lines, digital photography, multiple camera angle cable channels, hi-definition TV, phones with built-in mpeg cameras and an internet that spans the globe to include hundreds of millions of people.
It's no wonder that Ronaldinho's got a higher profile given our media-saturated modern life. Not to mention money. Whereas Pelé's magic was remunerated appallingly and Maradona's earnings would pale into insignificance compared to mediocre modern professionals, Ronaldinho - in common with other modern-day sports stars - earns more money that he could spend in a lifetime. Pelé, on the other hand, is still grafting away almost 30 years after retiring from the pitch.
That brings us back to Pelé. Is he suffering from 'dor de cotovelo' (literally elbow pain; but meaning jealousy) about the fact that Ronaldinho has already amassed a fortune whereas he's having to consort with people like Parizotto despite playing sublime football for almost two decades at the highest level? Or is he right: are we prematurely going beyond his current status and deifying Ronaldinho before time?
Poll