No Pele in Castrol Index best World Cup XI

* From: News Limited newspapers
* June 09, 2010

IT'S a line-up sure to start arguments around the world - the best ever World Cup starting XI but this time there's no place for Brazil legend Pele.

The stattos working on the Castrol Index have analysed every World Cup match from 1966-2006 – 870 geeks spending 3000 hours assessing 540 games and almost one million player movements – and the result? There’s no room for Pele in the first XI. England great Bobby Moore and France wizard Zinedane Zidane are other notable ommissions from the side.

From the back, the greatest World Cup team line-up features Brazilian goalkeeper Emerson Leao, who conceded just three goals and saved 90 per cent of shots on the Brazil goal in the 1978 finals.

In defence are West Germany’s Andreas Brehme (1990), Brazil’s Marcio Santos (1994), and 1998 World Cup-winning French duo Marcel Desailly and Lillian Thuram.

An unstoppable midfield quartet features “Der Kaiser” Franz Beckenbauer (1966), Poland’s 1974 Golden Boot winner Gregorz Lato, Dutch master John Cruyff (1974) and Diego Maradona, who scored or assisted in 71 per cent of Argentina’s goals in the ’86 tournament.

Upfront are two of the World Cup’s most prolific strikers: West Germany’s Gerd Müller (1970), whose involvement in 13 goals was more than any other player has managed in any other single World Cup between 1966-2006; and Brazil’s all-time World Cup finals top scorer, Ronaldo (2002).

It’s certainly a star-studded team but the question remains how did Pele miss out? It’s all in the statistics.

To many, Pele is the best player of all time and his performance at Mexico ’70 – which included his legendary dummy against Uruguay, his famous attempt from the half-way line against Czechoslovakia and his header spectacularly saved by Gordan Banks – but his goals-to-shots percentage for the tournament was only 15 per cent and his shooting accuracy just 38 per cent.

But the beautiful game isn’t just about numbers. Other games may be able to rank their players on their statistics but for most football fans Pele is still the first-name on any all-time greatest list. Where do you stand on the Castrol Index line-up?

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/world-cup-2010/no-pele-in-castrol-index-best-world-cup-xi/story-fn4l4vck-1225877496249