AthletesTeams
Pelé vs Cruyff
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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
PeléWinner
94.2Pelé wins: Dominance, Peak, Honours
Cruyff
92.9Cruyff wins: no category outright
Time range
Showing full careers. Pick a window to recalculate the selected period.
Category radar
Verdict
Weighted GOAT score
🇧🇷 Pelé
94.2
Pelé leads in 5 of 5 weighted categories.
1. Pelé
2. Johan Cruyff
Category breakdown
Season form · Goals per season
Career timeline · Goals per season
Cumulative output season by season — the shape of each career against the other.
GOAT pace tracker
Through age 21 · Goals per season
1. 🇧🇷 Pelé248 goals
5 seasons by age 21 · 49.6 per season
Setting the pace at age 21
No verified birth date for Cruyff — shown in the pro-debut view instead.
Every career is cut at the season the athlete turned 21, so a rookie today is measured against exactly what a legend had banked by the same birthday.
| Metric | PeléRetired · New York Cosmos | CruyffRetired |
|---|---|---|
| Career goals | 767 | 401 |
| Career assists | 229 | — |
| Ballon d'Or | 0 | 3 |
| World Cups | 3 | — |
| Champions League titles | 0 | — |
| League titles | 10 | 9 |
| Goals per 90 | 0.84 | — |
| European Cups | — | 3 |
| International caps | — | 48 |
| International goals | — | 33 |
| Dominance w25% | 96 | 94 |
| Peak w20% | 97 | 95 |
| Longevity w20% | 90 | 90 |
| Honours w20% | 95 | 93 |
| Statistics w15% | 92 | 92 |
Fan vote — data vs the people
GOAT Rank · the data
Pelé94.2
Cruyff92.9
What do you think?
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