I was watching some all-time XI’s by former footballers and analysists and was asking to myself: “Did football start in the 90’s for these people?”
I understand that people will always be biased towards the players that they got to experience and have an attachment to, but do you think that players from the old era like Eusebio, Rivera, Meazza, Di Stefano, Etc… are underrated compared to modern legends?
I think modern players are better in general because of the advances in sports medicine, tactics and a change in professional discipline.
This is to say that if you plucked out those greats from before had them time travel to now and stuck them in a team for a season they would not perform as well as the modern greats.
Now if you plucked those greats out while they were young children and brought them to modern times and had them grow up and develop through the exact same environments as today’s players then there would be no telling how they would do. Meaning we can’t say if Pele, Maradona, and Messi all grew up at the exact same time who would actually be the best.