How would the legends fair now?

[brockmyster]

Was just thinking how do people think the careers of old legends (e.g. Pele, Eusebio, Rivelino, Banks, Charlton etc) would've panned out if they were playing now in this modern football culture with the added fixtures, ease of transfers between leagues, vast wealth blah blah blah?

[foxes_rule1978]

Well they clearly had the talent, so with the same dietitians and lovely fields to play on they would still be the best players ..

However if it came to just purely comparing them as they were in the past, to their training and today... they would struggle to make it in the lower leagues...

[Manwell Pablo]

Modern day fitness plays a much bigger part than most people give it credit.

[davieG]

Not forgetting a lighter aerodynamically designed ball and streamlined boots.

[Fox92]

Surely it was more difficult back when they played? Harder ball, tougher pitches, certain tackles were allowed etc...?

[Nalis]

Goes both ways really.

IMO, the main differences are in defence where teams are set up so much better at the back now than then so its much harder to unlock a defence now than it would have been for someone play Pele to unlock a team playing 3-2-5...

[MooseBreath]

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/26548810

Watching some of the defending in this 1970 world cup semi final "game of the century" I'd put it at championship standard at best. But give those players access to today's training and resources and I'm sure they'd be just as good as today's players.

[Stadt]

Internationally I'd say it's much tougher now - you have minnows that have decent footballing infrastructures now and have professional leagues whereas from what I've read some international teams weren't set up very well. All players are really fit now too so Brazil probably wouldn't beat Nicaragua 14-0 now it'd be more like 6 or 7-0

[Grandad.]

Internationally I'd say it's much tougher now - you have minnows that have decent footballing infrastructures now and have professional leagues whereas from what I've read some international teams weren't set up very well. All players are really fit now too so Brazil probably wouldn't beat Nicaragua 14-0 now it'd be more like 6 or 7-0

 

 

Minnows back then were more capable of the upset back then I would say more so than now. 

 

I think fitness and lifestyles would be one of the main differences, which would inevitably show through in a game. 

[MC Prussian]

They'd struggle to cope with the speed and athleticism of today's standard of play, but still come in handy for the odd bit of trickery here and there.

[AKCJ]

I think Maradona and Pele would still be brilliant.

 

 

I think it would be a better to imagine if today's greats would be as good in the past.

[Stadt]

Minnows back then were more capable of the upset back then I would say more so than now.

I think fitness and lifestyles would be one of the main differences, which would inevitably show through in a game.

I probably didn't get my point across well enough, minnows now tend to be more organised and disciplined so they'll stick 10 men behind the ball and catch a team on the break whereas (from what I've seen) in the past the lesser nations seemed to lack professionalism and didn't seem as efficient.

But I suppose that isn't really anything to do with legends and how they'd fair in today's game.

[Donut]

The minnows are far more competitive now than they were in the 70s era. Look at Europe as an example, San Marino and Andorra take their share of batterings, but everyone else is capable of giving established nations a game and taking points off them too.

 

Contrast that to teams like Zaire in the world cup who were frankly a joke, and its obvious smaller nations are much better now.

[Manwell Pablo]

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/26548810

Watching some of the defending in this 1970 world cup semi final "game of the century" I'd put it at championship standard at best. But give those players access to today's training and resources and I'm sure they'd be just as good as today's players.

 

That's irrelevant.