you are comparing apples with oranges. You cannot compare football from the 50s,70s with football from today, simply because the whole society changed. If football wasn't as polished as today, to out stand in this environment is even harder. Every injury could mean the end of your career. Pele was raised poor, served the army, played professionally from 1950 - 1977(!!)

Messi in another hand is "professional" since he was 6. He moved to Barcelona at age of 10 to go through an hormonal treatment and since then he is exposed to professional football. Such chance was impossible back in the 50s for a black kid in Brazil or anyone else actually.