Brazil legend Pele: Neymar is more complete than Barcelona's Lionel Messi, and can be better than me

The 71-year-old icon feels that the Santos attacker can mature to become greater than he was at his pinnacle, and is a more rounded player than the current Ballon d'Or holder

By Gareth McKnight

Pele
Radiator PR Ltd
Brazil legend Pele has stated that Santos starlet Neymar can be better than he was at his peak, and is a more rounded player than Barcelona's Lionel Messi.

The 71-year-old, regarded by many as the greatest footballer to have played the game, has been full of praise for the young striker ever since he burst onto the scene two years ago, and feels that the 19-year-old, given the time to mature, can surpass his abilities.

"Although we cannot talk of him as an heir because each player is different, Neymar has the ability to be better than me," Pele told Mundo Deportivo.

The striker will be a key player for the Vila Belmiro outfit in the Club World Cup later in December, where he could face the Champions League winners and the current Ballon d'Or holder Messi.

Despite the personal and team accolades that the Argentina international has achieved so far in his career, Pele feels that his countryman is more complete as a player, but that the Camp Nou attacker has more experience.

"For me the two are technically very good, but Neymar is more complete because he shoots with both feet, and dribbles from both sides," the iconic former Santos forward explained.

"The one thing that lets both down is their heading.

"Messi has more experience for me. He is a more mature player, who has played big games in Europe, and that makes a difference.

"Neymar has only two years at senior level but is already an excellent player," he concluded.

Starting last month and continuing every Friday through to January, Goal.com will publish extracts from Graham Hunter's highly-anticipated book, Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World. Check out this week's enthralling extract on how Barcelona's path to greatness all started with Spain's triumph at Euro 2008. Don't miss it!


 
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England 1-0 Belgium, Netherlands 2-0 Northern Ireland - follow all the international action LIVE! ahead of Euro 2012
With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.

Hosted by Joe Doyle
19:46 BST
Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.

"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.

"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."

"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."

Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
19:35 BST
And another point from today: Eden Hazard wasn't great. Don't think you can judge him on one performance though. What do you think? Is it just a case of too much hype around the Chelsea-bound Belgian?
19:32 BST
We're getting plenty of people saying it was boring. PLENTY. But Spain scored seven goals in eight games at the World Cup and I didn't hear too many of their fans complaining. Or as Fran Stinchcombe points out on Twitter: "If we had lost but played free flowing attacking football would these people still have moaned?"
19:24 BST
No, no, no. I'll have none of that Emile Heskey shouting anymore! Hello, it's me, it's me, it's that D-O-Y-L-E. Yes, I'm Joe Doyle, and I'll be here for all the reaction to that England game. First things first, how did everyone see that game? Good performance? A touch boring? Let me know on Twitter.
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