“The league that received Pele is way different to the one Lionel Messi has come to” - Inter Miami boss Tata Martino
Inter Miami manager Tata Martino does not think Lionel Messi should be compared with Brazilian legend Pele. He believes that the two players featured in different eras in the USA so the comparisons do not do justice to both.
With the Argentine now playing in Major League Soccer (MLS), many started comparing him with the Brazilian icon again, who played for the New York Cosmos.
Messi has scored 11 goals in eight matches across competitions for Inter Miami so far and should he keep the streak going, he would easily break Pele's record in America.
Martino was talking to the media after Lionel Messi's MLS debut, where he scored a late goal to seal a 2-0 win for Inter Miami over New York Red Bulls. He said (via GOAL):
"The league that received Pele is a way different league than the league that Lionel Messi has come to."
The Brazilian had scored 64 goals in 107 matches for the American side.
Pele did not think Lionel Messi was the greatest of all time
Brazilian legend Pele did not think Lionel Messi was a better player than him. He believed that the former Barcelona star was not even the greatest Argentine, and rated Diego Maradona higher.
In an interview with Brazilian daily Folha de S.Paulo in 2018, Pele said:
"Normal. If they think... Matter of taste. There are people who think so. There are people who make comparisons with things they don't even have. How can you compare a guy who heads well, shoots with the left, shoots with the right, with another who only shoots with one leg, only has one skill, doesn't head well? How can you compare? To compare with Pelé, it had to be someone who kicked well with the left, kicked well with the right, scored a header."
He added:
"I haven't scored more goals with my head than my father. It's no use wanting to justify. He did, I didn't. It has excellent players, excellent even if they didn't have the same chance to appear. For me, Maradona was one of the best he ever had. You will ask me: was he better than Messi? It was, man. Much better. There was Beckenbauer, Cruyff. Excellent players too."
Earlier this month, Messi joined an elite list of footballers to score 100+ goals across three different decades. He became the fifth footballer on the list after Alfredo Di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas, Pele and Romario.