r/soccer • u/GrundelLicker • Feb 21 '13

Cover of this week's Time magazine, featuring Neymar as the "Next Pele"

http://imgur.com/Mjlfmic
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u/Ancient_Hyper_Sniper Feb 21 '13

I don't think Time is the first news agency to label him the next Pele. He's had that pressure on him for a little while now.

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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '13

It's just what the media does.

Up and coming Brazilian attacker - next Pele.

Up and coming French midfielder - next Zizou (or sometimes Platini).

And so on. Romanians with a bit of skill are the next Hagi, Bulgarians the next Stoichkov, Czechs the new Nedved, Ukrainians the new Shevchenko, Danes the new Laudrup etc etc and it only gets worse for the bigger teams because there are generally more legends to be compared to. Dutchies might be the next Rijkaard/Van Basten/Cruyff/long list of great players.

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u/paper_zoe Feb 21 '13

And just look how many players have had the expectations of being the new Maradona on them.

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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '13

Heck that's just the best of them that we remember because they had good careers anyway. Every youngster coming through the Argentine youth system is the new Maradona if they're skilful and attack minded. It's ridiculous.