Football God Pele believes he has found the next in line to the football throne, back in his native Brazil. Whilst everyone from Barcelona and Argentina relentlessly support Lionel Messi as the World’s Best footballer, Pele and his Brazilian counterparts believe that new-boy Neymar will soon take his place.
Neymar is still regarded as a little known talent, even though he has led the Brazil U21 team to Copa America glory, and his performances at club level have left both commentators and fans confounded, and opposition defenders on their bottoms! Because he still plys his trade for Santos (the biggest club in his homeland, but far from a big club on the world stage) he has been overlooked by many of the people who nominate players for the FIFA Ballon D’Or Award.
Lionel Messi has been at the top of his game for the last two seasons, scoring goals for fun, and racking up an impressive ratio that is close to a goal per game. Admittedly many of the goals are coming against distinctly average and inferior teams in the Primera Liga, but to score with such consistency proves that he is an amazing talent. Having led Barcelona to the Champions League title once more, it’s widely expected that he will be given a record-breaking third consecutive Ballon D’Or.
Whilst Pele accepts Neymar isn’t quite up to Messi’s standards yet, he believes he isn’t far off. “Fans talk about Maradona and Messi, but we have Neymar, who will be a great player with the skills he has! He is very skilled, the best on his team. The only thing he has to learnt o do better is defend himself against defenders – other than that he has everything – pace, power, shooting, passing, control, you name it!”