Pele voted simply the best

George Best rose to his feet somewhat shakily and there was an aggrieved frown on his increasingly ravaged features. The former Manchester United legend had just been announced as the second greatest footballer to walk the planet - pipped only by the sublime talents of Brazil's Pele.

"I am really a bit annoyed that I got beaten," said Best, his tone of disdain dissipating as his eyes revealed the mischievous twinkle. "But if you're going to be beaten you don't mind if it's by the great man himself."

Best was speaking at the launch of the International Football Hall of Fame - a soccer theme museum which will be built in Manchester and opened in 1999 at a cost of £15 million.

Among other things it will feature the achievements of the world's 25 greatest players who have been chosen over the last few months by half a million fans from 110 countries via the Internet. Their preferences have been put into order by 30 international journalists.

And while it is difficult to imagine anyone, apart from those who still believe the world is flat, who wouldn't agree that Pele is the greatest player the Beautiful Game has ever seen, the list is peppered with controversy and contention.

After all, was the admittedly elegant but milk-float slow Bobby Moore - despite lifting the World Cup as England captain in 1966 - really the fifth best football player of all time?

Does Alfredo Di Stefano, the king of Europe with Real Madrid in the intoxicating football days of the 50s and 60s, deserve to be as low as 21 when Dutch striker Marco van Basten is placed seventh?

And, with the criterion confined to internationals who have been retired three years, can 10 British players really merit inclusion in a list which includes just one Italian, Dino Zoff at 25, and four Brazilians - Pele, Garrincha, Jairzinho and Rivelino.

It does rather cast doubt on the organisers' assertion that the poll was truly international.

But then football has always had one referee on the pitch and 50,000 in the stands. Your thoroughbred is my donkey. And choosing one star to outshine another is not exactly rocket science.

Nonetheless, the great and the good of football turned up at former Arsenal manager Terry Neill's bar yesterday to lend their voice to soccer's perennial debate.

There was Nat Lofthouse, the Lion of Vienna, who was likened to a Centurion tank while terrorising defences for Bolton and England in the 50s.

Sitting next to him was Tom Finney, who came 13th in the Hall of Fame but was always Bill Shankly's favourite player. "I'd have played him in his overcoat," the great Liverpool manager once said.

Just across the room was the granite-like figure of Jim Baxter, who dominated Scottish football in the 60s.

No-one who saw it could ever forget his performance for Rangers against Rapid Vienna in 1964 when, in the last minute and with the game won, Baxter dribbled the ball from the Rapid penalty area almost all the way back to his own goal and when he was still not tackled raced back up the left wing with it.

He was eventually chopped down from behind for his impudence by Walter Skocik and broke a leg. With typical Scottish grit he reasoned: "Perhaps I overdid it."

Well, Baxter didn't make the top 25 yesterday but Gordon Banks, standing beside him, came sixth, largely on the back of that unforgettable save from Pele in the 1970 World Cup in Guadalajara.

And then there was Alan Ball, an England World Cup winner in 1966 and looking 10 years younger than his 52 years. Ball once went for a trial with Bolton on the same morning as Gordon Taylor, now the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association.

Ball, who went on to become the first £100,000 footballer in a glittering career with Everton and Arsenal, was told he was far too small to be a soccer professional.

"You should try being a jockey instead, they told him," said Taylor. "I walked in next and they signed me on. It just shows how wrong you can be and how football is all a matter of opinion."

The new Hall of Fame will at least allow fans to see the greats through the ages in action on video. Was Pele the best from Rio to Rochdale? Judge for yourself!

International Hall Of Fame

1, Pele; 2, George Best; 3, Bobby Charlton; 4, Johan Cruyff; 5, Bobby Moore; 6, Gordon Banks; 7, Marco van Basten; 8, Franz Beckenbauer; 9, John Charles; 10, Kenny Dalglish; 11, Duncan Edwards; 12, Eusebio; 13, Tom Finney; 14, Garrincha; 15, Jairzinho; 16, Stanley Matthews; 17, Gerd Muller; 18, Michel Platini; 19, Ferenc Puskas; 20, Rivelino; 21, Alfredo Di Stefano; 22, Lev Yashin; 23, Billy Wright; 24, Zico; 25, Dino Zoff.

Future Hall of Famers: Diego Maradona, Alan Shearer, Ronaldo, George Weah and David Beckham.