Pele is overrated he was nowhere near the level of Ronaldo or Messi, says Jason Cundy on t

Pele – widely regarded as one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, footballers in the history of the game...

Well, not to Jason Cundy.

A discussion about Raheem Sterling took an unexpected twist on The Sports Bar, as the former Chelsea defender stunned co-host Andy Goldstein by claiming the Brazilian great is ‘overrated’.

This is a man who was the joint winner of the FIFA Player of the Century award [with Diego Maradona] and was voted the Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee.

He also boasts the Guinness World Record for most career goals in football history with 1281 goals in 1363 games – although a lot of them were scored in unofficial friendlies and thus are not officially recorded by most sporting record books.

He has made it clear over the years, however, that he considers each and every goal to be very much valid.

Pele remains the only player to win three World Cups and is also still the youngster ever winner of a World Cup at the age of 17 in 1958/

He also has the world record number of hat-tricks with 92, and is Brazil’s all-time leading scorer with 77 goals (95 including unofficial friendlies).

But according to Jason...

“I don’t know whether Pele was all that, honestly,” he said on talkSPORT. “I think he’s overrated.

“He scored in the World Cup final when he was 17... and? Does that make you a world-class player?

“I think Pele was probably the best player of that era, but is he better than [Lionel] Messi?

“The best three players I’ve ever seen in my life are Maradona, Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo - and Pele not in the same bracket.

“I never saw Pele play, have you [to Goldstein]? What have you seen, black and white footage of his best clips?

“I think Pele is one of those players who gets such a reputation, it builds and builds and it becomes folklore, it becomes legend.

“And I think Pele’s legend is better than the actual player he was.”

You can watch Jason Cundy's remarkable claim about Pele, in full, above...

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