[candybar]

> Santos was an above-average team before he arrived. Same as napoli with Maradona. They took average teams to new heights.

Santos won Campeonato Paulista in 1955, the season before Pele's debut and also in 1956, when Pele debuted towards the end the season. Santos finished second in 1957 when Pele became a regular. They were a dominant team but being a consistently dominant team takes more than one all-time player.

This isn't like Napoli with Maradona, who were a mid-table team when Maradona joined that had never won the top-flight league.