A light-hearted look at FIFA's player of the century debacle
At the turn of the millennium, FIFA came up with a brilliant plan to shoot themselves in the foot. They came up with a Player of the Century award, the winner for which would be decided on the basis of an online poll. Maradona won the Internet based poll
by wide margins, garnering 53.6% of the votes. Pele wasn’t even close, getting only 18.3% of the votes. This was not surprising, since Maradona had played in the high-profile Spanish and Italian leagues in the era of mega-television exposure.
Brazilians were outraged. They argued the terms of the Web-based vote were unfair and claimed the Argentine Football Federation had led a concerted campaign to swing the vote Maradona's way. Apparently, only Maradona fans owned a modem. What started out
as a fun way to celebrate the new millennium quickly turned ugly. The results of the poll led to fierce debate between the two countries.
In their bid to defuse tensions, FIFA came up with another brilliant idea. They appointed a "Football Family" committee composed of FIFA officials, football journalists and specialists from all around the world to decide on the player of the century. Instead
of showing integrity and proceeding with their original plans, FIFA folded like soggy paper. In doing so, they made the situation even worse, leading to a war of words between Pele and Maradona. In an interview, the Argentinean said,
‘The people voted for me. Now they want me to share the prize with Pele. I'm not going to share the prize with anybody.’
As you can see, Maradona was as diplomatic as a 5-year-old who is suddenly faced with the prospect of sharing his teddy bear. Pele’s reply was a bit more mature, but only just. The Brazilian legend said,
‘We're not great friends but I admire him. If he thinks he's the best player of the century that's his problem.’ Ouch.
It’s just as well they didn’t meet face to face during the feud. Remember, these guys are football legends. Their kicks would put many a kung fu masters to shame. The ‘Football Family’ assembled by FIFA voted in favour of Pele. The Brazilian earned 72.8%
of the votes. So now, FIFA were in a bit of a pickle. Maradona won the online poll and Pele won the committee vote. FIFA officials decided to give out two awards. Maradona was awarded Best player of the century as voted by fans on FIFA's Official Web site.
Pele won the Best player of the century as voted by journalists, coaches and FIFA officials.
At the ceremony, Maradona left the hall after accepting his award, just before Pele was to accept his. The raucous continued for weeks after the event. Fans of the Argentinean argued that Maradona was the real winner and reducing his status to a sort of
‘Internet’ player of the century was a slap to the face. But this story does have a happy ending.
5 years after their infamous feud, Maradona invited Pele to his talk show (that’s right, Maradona had a talk show). There were fears that the episode would turn into the Argentinean equivalent of Jerry Springer. Surprisingly though, the two legends got along
like the best of friends, even singing together. The night ended with the two men exchanging their national team shirts, showing that their feud was a distant memory. In an interview after the show, Maradona was asked who he thought was the better player,
him or Pele. The Argentinean replied,
‘My mother says it was me and Pele's mother says it was him.’ Well said, Sir. Well said.
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