Press claim to be the greatest footballer, nearly? (5)
I believe the answer is:
impel
'press claim' is the definition.
'impel' can be an answer for 'press' (I've seen this before). I am not sure about the 'claim' bit.
'the greatest footballer nearly?' is the wordplay.
'the greatest' becomes 'im' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'footballer' becomes 'pele' (Brazilian footballer Pele).
'nearly?' means to remove the last letter (I've seen 'nearly' mean this).
'pele' with its last letter taken away is 'pel'.
'im'+'pel'='IMPEL'
'to be' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for impel that I've seen before include "Spur on" , "Motivate" , "Press on - drive forward" , "Urge or drive to do something" , "Constrain" .)