In the early morning of January 11 (Vietnam time), with the goal to seal the score for Juventus in the 3-1 Sassuolo win, Cristiano Ronaldo officially surpassed the Pele King to equal the scoring record of Josef Bican (759 goals).
It will only be a matter of time before Ronaldo sets a new record, but the controversy over the goal record will continue.
Against Ronaldo, Lionel Messi broke Pele's record (643) for goals scored for a club and now he has opened a new record.
The Brazilian legend sent his congratulations to Messi and Ronaldo after these milestones, but then controversy broke out when Santos - Pele's former club - did not record Ronaldo's achievements.
The Brazilian team confirmed that Pele's goals are 1,283. Pele has also been rumored to have edited his Instagram page by adding 1,238 goals, although he later denied it.
But the story is, with the support of Santos, controversy is inevitable.
For those who recognize Ronaldo's advantage over Pele, those statistics are goals in official matches and tournaments. Meanwhile, Santos only claimed that Pele's goals in friendly matches against strong opponents such as Real Madrid, Inter Milan... were all recognized.
Will Pele really score 1,283 goals? It is true that he has scored that number of goals, but to determine the official number of goals, it is necessary to find the record book to have the answer. Accordingly, statistics show that only about 60% of the more than 1,000 times Pele threw into the opponent's net were in official matches.
According to Sky Sports, the 50-year-old legend's more than 500 goals recorded in the Guinness Book of Record have been in unofficial friendlies and tours.
Goals for the Sixth Coast Guard in military tournaments are also included in the overall record.
In addition, there was a match where Pele scored 8 goals against Botafogo club, but in reality, it was not the famous Botafogo that people thought of but the much less-known Botafogo Ribeirao Preto, a team playing in the second division of Brazil.
Similarly, there were 5 goals against Nacional but not a famous Uruguayan club but a team from Sao Paolo state, or 5 goals against Juventus but not the giants of Italian football.
He has also been criticized by many for being among more than 1,000 goals, scoring only 12 goals at the World Cup - a tournament in which he won 3 times with Brazil.
Pele was even surpassed by Just Fontaine in 1958 and was not a top scorer for Selecao when Brazil won the Cup in 1970.
Of course, it is not possible to say that Pele had been lying. He is still one of the greatest players that world football has produced. Every goal is a goal, it is forever associated with his life and career. As for records, whether official or formal, from each person's perspective...
