I think it can be a bit unfair on players of the past when we take these things into account. If Pele played in the modern game he would have the benefit of modern nutrition and sports science. Likewise, if Ronaldo played back in the 60s he would have had to make do with the nutrtion and sports science of that era. It's extremely hard to compare players from different eras to each other but I think the fairest way to do it is to purely assess their footballing ability and to not dwell too much on advancements in health, physicality, speed etc.
Absolutely not. I state a fact, messi is a much better player than pele ever was. Thats uncontroversial in my mind. Science has devoloped enormously, and so has football. Gradually yes, but the 1950 s are far away from modern football. If pele time travel as a 25 year old player into todays Barca, he wont Even be a starter. On the other hand: if a guy with peles genetics was borned in the 80s and raised at la masia, you would have a beast of a player.
The answer is this, messi is way better footballer than pele ever was, so goes for cr7. But under the same conditions who knows. All I am saying is that messi is better, and that someone Will surpass him in lets say 20 years. I am not taking something away from any player, I am just stating a fact. The level is higher.