Brazilian football legend Pele has updated his Instagram bio to Leading Goal Scorer of All Time (1,283)’ a day after Cristiano Ronaldo overtook him in the tally of all-time scorers. Ronaldo, who plies his trade for Serie A giants Juventus, scored twice against Udinese in a 4-1 win at Allianz Stadium on Sunday.
The brace took Ronaldo’s overall tally to 758, one ahead of Pele (757) who has now been pushed to the third spot in a list currently led by Josef Bican. But it seems the three-time world cup winner isn’t going to let go of the record as he continues to claim he scored over 1000 goals during a storied career that saw him representing Brazil, Santos and New York Cosmos between 1956 and 1977.
The dispute came to the fore recently when Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi overtook him in the list of most goals scored for a single club. However, immediately, Santos then claimed that Pele scored 1091 times during his time at the club, asking that the goals scored during friendlies be counted towards the overall record as well.
“In the last few days, there has been a lot of talk in the media and on social media about how many goals Pele scored in a Santos shirt,” the club posted on its Instagram handle. “According to some statistics, the Argentine Lionel Messi (Barcelona) became the player with the most goals for a single club, when he scored 644 for the Catalans, excluding friendlies — which some call official goals.”
“However, part of the media report the total, while excluding the best record of all: the total number of goals for the clubs. Pele scored 1,091 for Santos,” it read.
The development has drawn criticism from fans on social media.
Pele’s 643 goals for Santos was the most a player scored for a single club before Messi overtook him in December.