Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are often regarded as the greatest players in the game, but it has now been claimed that it is only together that they would be as good as Pele.
The two superstars are the only active footballers to have scored at least 700 goals for club and country after Messi reached the milestone on Tuesday.
Pele is also among the seven-man list of footballers who have scored more than 700 career goals, and his former Brazil teammate Eduardo Goncalves de Andrade, more commonly known as Tostao, has now insisted he is the best player in history.
"I think Pele was better than all of them. For me, there's no comparison," he told FIFA's official website.
"Pele was far more complete. He had every quality that a forward could have. He didn't have one defect.
"Maradona was spectacular, but he wasn't on Pele's level physically, he didn't score the numbers of goals Pele did.
"Messi's spectacular, but he doesn't head the ball like Pele did, he doesn't shoot as well with both feet, he doesn't pull off the moves that Pele did.
"Cristiano Ronaldo is an exceptional player, but he doesn't have the ability that Pele had and he doesn't pull off the incredible passes that Pele did.
"If you take the qualities of Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi, put them together, then you'd have a player to compare to Pele!"
To date, Pele is the only player to win three FIFA World Cup, while Messi and Ronaldo are yet to lift the Jules Rimet trophy.
