We tried to figure out the numbers.

Messi really overtook Pele, and Cristiano – the best scorer in history? The answer is everything is difficult

Last week, everyone noted the achievement of Cristiano Ronaldo, who crossed the mark of 800 goals per career. And after the Tuesday matches of the Champions League, first on social networks, and then on news ribbons, a wave rose that Lionel Messi, who made a double in the game PSG with Bruges, overtook 758 goals against 757. For the club and 80 for the national team, and the legendary Brazilian – 680 per club and 78 for the national team.

Y Lo Super? Nom? S: Leo Messi Anot? Un Doblete En La #CHAMPIONSXESPN Y LLEG? A 758 Goles oficiales, Dejando El Camino a pel?. pic.twitter.com/nwl1gfmdc4

– Sportscenter (@Sc_espn) December 7, 2021

With Cristiano and Messi, everything is clear – their careers developed before our eyes, and almost all of their goals we looked live, and this is not such an exaggeration. 801 and 758 are the number of balls they have praised at the highest level. That is, in the highest divisions of national championships, cups, European competitions, club championships and for the national team.

But with Pele and other legends of the past, the situation is much more complicated. It is generally accepted that in his career the Great Brazilian scored more than 1000 heads. The story with the anniversary 1000s is widespread in the literature-how could Pel not be scored, as he did with a penalty, as many were considered a small spot on the reputation of the king of football and how, nevertheless, everyone around celebrated the achievement of this mark .

How many Pele scored everything? Oddly enough, there are different data. In January of this year, the Brazilian himself posted a post on Instagram, where he stated that he had 1283 goals. Then, however, he was removed, but nevertheless. There is another source that many refer to, speaking of the best scorers in history, is a well -known statistical resource of RSSSF. So, there is 1303 goals for a career there, but this is in all matches.

Where did 757 goals come from? It is generally accepted that so much Pele scored in official matches at the top-level-goals for Santos (643), New York Cosmos (37) and the Brazilian team (77) are summed up, and the numbers are usually taken with RSSSF ( At least the English -language Wikipedia does just that).

This was widely discussed in early January, when Ronaldo, having made a double on the gate of Udinese, brought the number of goals scored to 758. The story scattered widely along social networks, including the most authoritative resources like ESPN or Goal.

Cristiano Ronaldo Overtakes Pele's Official Goal Tally?

Two and a half months later, the story repeated. Ronaldo made a hat-trick in the match with Caglia and reached 770 goals. After that, the Portuguese called himself the best scorer in history and turned to the pele, to whom the Portuguese attributed to 767 goals.

“My eternal and unconditional admiration for Mr. Edson Arantis Du Nasento, as well as respect for football in the mid-20th century, prompted me to believe that he scored 767 goals, given nine goals for the national team of San Paulo, as well as one goal for the army team as official.The world has changed since then, and football has also changed, but this does not mean that we can simply erase the story for the sake of our interests, ”Ronaldo wrote on Instagram.