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No surprises as the greatest Brazilian forward is crowned

| 27.03.2015

Sometimes the correct answer is simply the obvious one, and so it appears with the latest Ladbrokes News poll crowning Pele as the greatest Brazilian forward of all time.

With 77 goals in 92 caps (or 95 in 133 if you include ‘unofficial games’), the legendary hitman was  always going to be one of the favourites to top the vote, and so it seems.

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The former Santos man came home with 40 per cent of the vote, as early support failed to wane.

Having won three World Cups as well as the Golden Ball in Mexico in 1970 it was clear that his influence for the Selecao was huge.

In fact the South Americans came out victorious in 67 of the 92 matches he played in, while they never lost a match when both he and Garrincha (fourth in our poll) were on the pitch.

Chasing Pele in vain, like most defenders in the 60s, was Ronaldo.

Two World Cups and two Copa America’s may have left the former Real Madrid and Barcelona man being idolised by equally special strikers Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but that wasn’t enough for our readers, the 38-year-old picking up 23 per cent of the vote.

And while Neymar will surely go on to break numerous goalscoring records for Brazil, it appears his time will come, but he has some way to go to mix it with the top two.

Attracting 10 per cent of the vote, the 23-year-old beat the likes of Ronaldinho and Romario to claim the final spot on the podium.

His tally might be impressive for a player of such a young age, but it appears he has away to go to be compared to the likes of Edson Arantes do Nascimento.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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Author

Ben Stones

Ladbrokes News’ equine expert, Ben likes nothing more than studying the form to pick out a winner or two for our readers. A Journalism and Media Studies graduate from the University of Winchester, Ben has previously written for a number of football and racing blogs and websites, as well as contributing to the sports pages of his home-town newspaper.