The football world has been in a state of sadness and mourning for days, following the death of Brazilian football legend Pele, who breathed his last at Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo last Thursday at the age of 82, more than a year after suffering from colon cancer.

Pele is seen by many as the greatest player in football history, given that he is the only 3-time World Cup winner.

The man dubbed the "brown jewel" did not deny this fact, and stated on several occasions that he sees himself as the greatest player in the history of football, as he said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper "Marca" in 2015, "I have not seen a good player like Pele in 1970." .

Many agree with this trend, at a time when others see that the late Argentine Diego Armando Maradona or even his compatriot Lionel Messi are the best in history, especially after the latter succeeded in winning the 2022 World Cup, the only tournament that was lacking in his coffers.

In 2020, the late Pele presented a list of the 10 best players in football history, from his point of view.

The 12 best players in history, according to Pele

Pele admitted at the time that this question was difficult, but he answered it after moments of deep thought, "There are more than 10 players of my generation," and then added, laughing, "I will leave mentioning their names to someone else."

Then Pele mentioned the ten best players in his opinion, and they are Maradona, the Spaniard Alfredo Di Stefano, the Italian Giovanni Trapattoni, his compatriots Garrincha, Carlos Alberto, Ronaldo Nazario, the Dutchman Johan Cruyff, the German Franz Beckenbauer, the French Zinedine Zidane, and the Spaniard Andres Iniesta.

One of the greatest to ever play the game 🇧🇷⚽️

Join us in wishing the legendary @Pele a very Happy Birthday 🥳 pic.twitter.com/hwuU3d1Ufh

— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) October 23, 2022

What is remarkable about these names, according to the "givemesport" website, is that Pele chose two of his colleagues who played with him in the Brazilian national team, namely Garrincha and Carlos Alberto, in addition to Maradona, the star who has long been compared to him.

Pele praised Di Stefano, saying, "Di Stefano is arguably the most complete player of his time. He was a great player. It is sad that there are no videos of him showing his greatness. Without a doubt, he would have been very popular."

Pele also found a place for both Zidane and Iniesta, two of the world's leading midfielders of their generation, who had years of competing at the highest level.

5 passed away

Of the 12 players chosen by Pele, only two did not retire, namely Messi and Ronaldo, while 5 died: Maradona, Di Stefano, Garrincha, De Cruyff and Carlos Alberto.

And about his opinion of his compatriot Ronaldo, Pele commented, "The phenomenon? His title says everything about him. I can say that Ronaldo is the best number 9 ever. He was amazing, his size, his speed, his skill. I have not seen this combination since then."

Pelé e Garrincha juntos pela seleção:

40 jogos


36 vitĂłrias


4 empates


0 derrota pic.twitter.com/uQPO0KFqJs

- Sala12 (@OficialSala12) December 30, 2022

In the same interview, Pele corrected the matter, and expanded the list of his best players in history from 10 to 12, adding Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to it.

Pele explained, "Today we are lucky, because Cristiano is amazing and Messi is incredible, I cannot exclude these two, right?"

Pele also praised the young Frenchman Kylian Mbappe, the Paris Saint-Germain striker, and talked about him by saying, "It seems that the future will be bright for him."

It is noteworthy that Mbappe scored 8 goals in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and raised the balance of his goals in the World Cup to 12 goals in only two versions, to equal Pele's World Cup goals.

There are only 5 players ahead of Pele in the number of goals in the World Cup, and they are Messi, the Frenchman Just Fontaine (13 goals), the German Gerd Mueller (14), his compatriot Ronaldo (15), and the German Miroslav Klose (16).