European v South American football

Originally Posted by drucurl

Also a lot of this discussion is based on the hypothetical. If you are going to discredit each "if" then there is no discussion. I could easily ask "Why have there been no european players that could shine Maradonna's / Pele's boots". You might well replay with an "if" yourself Hence its only normal that I'd make educated guesses as to what might have been if the shoe were on the other foot.

that's where the problem is dru, you support your arguments, most of them, with hypothetical assumptions or as you put it - educational guesses - of what might have been and what might not have been ... call me weird, but in my book a real argument is the one supported by facts not by dreamed out alternatives to reality.
it's one thing to just have a discussion about what things could have been, only if ... and just leave it at that but you are not doing that - you are using these hypothetical thoughts and use them to "prove" a point when your own so called "proof" needs itself to be proven in the first place.

As for shining Maradona's boots and whatnot, that's purely a question of personal opinion ... only in Pele's case one could argue with facts that he is the best and that's mostly because of his WC titles and 1000+ goals but those are titles won and goals scored in a dif time when football was that long gone romantic idea of open and static defenses and midfields with rather unrefined tactics compared to what football has turned into over the past 20-30 years or so.

I for one don't see Yohan Cruyff as inferior to Maradona - every player was at the top in his own era of football, under totally dif circumstances and no logical and objective comparisons/parallels can be drawn between them, although that's what fans just LOVE to do - speculate, favourize, and generalize using their own SUBJECTIVE opinion as "proof".