When Dad is the world’s best football player

Messi and Ronaldo.
Over the last 10 years, prodigious duels between the world’s two biggest stars have had more attention than anything else in the football world.
The two giant stars are both in the 30s and soon it may be time for the last kick of their wild careers, but maybe we can fast forward time 10-15 years and experience it all over once again: Messi versus Ronaldo; the next generation.
Both ball-wizards have sons playing soccer, and early videos of the two biggest boys reveal obvious talent.
Cristiano Junior is 869 days older than Thiago Messi – exactly the same number of days Cristiano Ronaldo is older than Leo Messi …
However, it is not certain that there will be a ‘next generation giant match’ because even though they have undoubtedly inherited good genes for football, there is still a long way to go to become professional, even further to become a top player – and almost irreversibly far to become world stars like the fathers.

It may be advantageous to step into dad’s footsteps as a football star, as it can mean good tips and strong workouts at home in the garden and thus a faster way to the top.
But it can also be a drawback to fight out your way out of a superstar father’s big shadow on the football field and stand alone in the spotlight. Especially when dad is the world’s best football player.

Pele
Armed with videos – sometimes in black and white and football story books, many older football freaks probably tell you that the biggest player ever is Pelé.
The Brazilian ball wizard scored over 1000 goals in his career and won three times the World Cup – as the only player ever.
All did not work out the same way on the football field for Pelé’s son, born a couple of months after Pelé’s third World Cup title in 1970.
Edinho grew up in New York with his mother, who had been divorced from Pelé. Edinho was good at all sports in the United States, especially basketball and ice hockey, but the football genius broke through, and Edinho began playing soccer in his teens.
The abilities with his feet did not quite go for a career as a field player, so he went back to the goal line. He was so sharp that, as a 19-year-old, he traveled to his second home Brazil and as a goalkeeper signed his first professional contract.
It looked like the beginning of something great for ‘The Son of King Football’, but Edinho had trouble with the expectations of football-crazy Brazil, and it did not get better by the fact that he was playing in his legendary father’s club, Santos.
His career had several clubs, but ended in Santos – where he also tried himself out as a coach.
Edinho succumbed to the pressure on the pitch, and even worse it went outside the football field.
In 2018, the son of Pelé himself is in jail, among other things for smuggling drugs.

Let’s all hope that it is better both on and off the path of the sons of today’s editions of Pelé; namely Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

23 June, 2023

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Jannik Riis
JR@technicafootball.com
+45 23 25 73 77
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