TWO England legends have dismissed Brazilian wonderboy Kaka as the 'new Pele' just hours before the friendly match between the two teams at the new Wembley Stadium on Friday.
George Cohen, who won the World Cup with England in 1966, is in no doubt that the young pretender is nowhere near the class of his predecessor.
"Pele did things that nobody had even seen before, and you can't say that about Kaka," he told www.sportasylum.com - the home of great sporting moments
"He needs to do a lot more in the game before he's considered one of the all-time great players. Pele was a genius at 19. He could produce a huge amount of power, had a very quick brain, had lots of time on the ball and always made things happen.
"Kaka, while he has obviously got a hell of a lot of ability, has got a long, long way to go before he gets anywhere near Pele.
"Many of the players today, including Kaka, need a team around them. But Brazil back then needed Pele. It wasn't the other way round.
"Kaka comes into the game in flashes, but he doesn't control the game in the way that Pele did. There really isn't much of a comparison between them quite frankly."
John Barnes, who scored one of England best-ever goals against Brazil at the Maracana in 1984, is in agreement with Cohen.
"Judging them by the impact they've had it's difficult to compare because Pele was by far and away the best player in the world throughout his career," he said.
"Whereas these days, we don't have any one player who dominates world football in the way Pele did."
It is hard to argue with the stats. Pele's record, both domestically and internationally, was incredible.
In 92 games for his country, he scored 77 goals. And while Kaka has made a supreme start to his career at the highest level by scoring 31 times in 50 appearances, he has a long way to go.
"Kaka might be the best player in the world right now," Barnes added.
"But he's not head and shoulders above everybody else and you need to have that dominance in order to have the same impact Pele had.
"Comparisons between the two are inevitable because when you're the best player in the world, it's natural to look back at the best players in the past and think 'is he as good as him?'
"And with Kaka also being Brazilian, I think this kind of comparison is even more likely to happen. But Pele was the best player in the world by some distance and Kaka is not."
