Messi Vs Pele: Brazilian coach says Messi can’t be compared to Pele’s greatness

Messi Vs Pele: Brazilian coach Tite claims that Lionel Messi’s comparison to Pele holds no credibility, a few days after a rift between both.

Brazilian coach Tite has once again hit out at Lionel Messi after claiming that Lionel Messi comparison against Brazil’s great Pele. This statement comes a few days after Messi had a war of words with Tite in Brazil Vs Argentina match at King Saud stadium.

🇧🇷 boss Tite: "Messi should have been shown a yellow card and he told me to shut my mouth and I told him to shut his mouth." 🤐 pic.twitter.com/UKRCCw6IB6

— GOAL (@goal) November 16, 2019

Per Goal’s Brendan McLoughlin, the coach spoke on Tuesday—the 50th anniversary of Pele’s 1,000th career goal—and dismissed the notion that Barcelona and Argentina star Messi could be considered football’s greatest player ahead of his compatriot.

“Pele is incomparable. Anybody who wants to compare Pele to any other athlete…do you know what I do? I hear but I don’t listen. It’s as if this person doesn’t know the history of this man’s quality…this guy was phenomenal. Once I said that Messi is extraordinary. Tite said.

“I meant he’s extraordinary to the present time and among humans, with his creativity. Pele is out of normal patterns, and I’m not saying this because I’m a Brazilian. You can’t find a defect.

“If somebody comes to me and starts to make comparisons, for me it has no credibility,” he concluded.

Tite was also critical of Messi during the Copa America tournament this summer, where the Argentine International accused biased refereeing in the semi-final match.

Related story: Watch: Lionel Messi dribbles past 8 players during Argentina vs Uruguay

Tite has fired back at Messi's allegations of Copa America corruption! 😮 pic.twitter.com/UhmA7BmbjH

— GOAL (@goal) July 8, 2019

On the other hand, Messi has embarked his name as one of the best players to ever grace the game, his staggering stats certainly make his contest valid for being the greatest of all time.

In a 21-year career, Pele racked up 1,281 (a stat which is still disputed) goals for club and country, which included 77 strikes in 91 appearances for Brazil which made him win 3 world cups. Meanwhile, Messi is yet to win an international trophy with Argentina.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

Read More