Up front all you need to do is look at the IFFHS Century selections - Alberto Spencer is named the 20th best South American player in history, Romario's 30th on the same list. I'm not going to talk down the little Brazilian at all... You have to be a pretty special player to be 10 places above Romario.
I had a look at
World Soccer's Greatest Players of the 20th Century and Spencer isn't listed, whilst Romario makes #26. It's all opinions!
In fairness, it isn't that much about opinions but who you ask and in what context.
Most rankings like the one produced by Cling willl be based on World Cups, maybe the CL, Ballon d'Or votes, etc. which is not the best way to assess a player at their peak over the entire XXth Century. They always gravitate towards modern players and away from older players, particularly if from small nations.
The ranking produced by Brwned is a very useful one, but its remit is South America. Romario's impact in South America is solely restricted to whatever he ever accomplished with Brazil's national team and his late retirement with clubs chasing the 1,000 goal mark. That is, not a fair reflection on Romario.
Being 20th though indicates how good Spencer was considering he has no NT brownie points to collect, relative to higher ranked players who mainly plied their trade in South America and played for big nations.
Overall, Spencer was not precisely 10 places better off than Romario, but he really was a cracking player. In Peñarol's victorious two-leg final against Real in '66 he scored three of Peñarol's 4 goals (2 away at the Bernabeu, if I recall correctly).
Once, in one of the many European friendlies that were organised to showcase South America's best to the European public, Pelé actually came up to him, with Peñarol 5-0 up against Santos (4 by Spencer), and asked him to stop humilliating them or it would all end in a messy punch up. He was one of the greatest, at a time when they weren't scarce at all.
