Legends of the Past

I was talking to one of my good friends, Machel Turner today about "O Fenômeno" Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima and the conversation shifted to how to compare footballing legends. The discussion started with my assertion that Ronaldo is the best striker of all time. Machel's valid argument was that Thierry Henry in his prime could rival the great man, but we eventually settled on Ronaldo as the G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Time). The crux of the winning thesis was that although both men were phenomenal finishers, Ronaldo's superior dribbling ability and absolute devastating finishing within the box made him a better all around forward. One needs only to watch videos of Ronaldo from the PSV, Barcelona and Inter Milan years to see this made plain.

Moving on from this topic, we began to talk about how Ronaldo, Henry and the legends from our day stack up against the legends of the past such as Marco Van Basten, Pelé, Maradona, Cruyff and the like. The list stretched on to luminaries like Ferenc Puskás and Alfredo Di Stefano. The main question was this: How do they all compare?

To use basketball as a reference, such giants of the game as Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, etc. were considered the G.O.A.T. in their day until a certain man named Michael Jordan came along and snatched the title. However, we are approaching a generation of teenagers and young adults that will never have seen Michael Jordan play a game. In lieu of that fact, will they respect his achievements? The same goes for Marco Van Basten, Maradona, Pelé, etc. For the simple fact that we didn't grow up watching these players, our generation (and by our, I mean my generation of 20-somethings) will find it difficult to truly appreciate their accomplishments. Because of that, will the next generation recognize our current legends (Ronaldo, Zidane, Henry, etc.) for their true brilliance?

I'm going to throw it up for Machel to continue so we can debate the issue further. Hopefully we'll see a good debate over the next few days.