Cristiano Ronaldo scored the 760th goal of his career in Juventus’ 2-0 win in the Italian Super Cup over Naples on Wednesday, which earned him the all-time top scorer.
With goals for Sporting Lisbon, 118 for Manchester United, 450 for Real Madrid, 85 for Juventus and 102 for Portugal, there is little debate about Ronaldo’s account.
The Portuguese striker, who will turn 36 next month, is an undisputed holder of several records, without any problems the most sensible goalscorer of Real Madrid and his country, and above Lionel Messi in the goal of the Champions League.
But uncertainty comes from the totals of their rivals from bygone eras, with Brazilian duo Pelé and Romario claiming to have scored more than 1,000 goals.
Last month, Messi of Barcelona surpassed Pelé’s stated total of 643 goals for a single club, but Santos responded temporarily on the grounds that the three-time World Cup winner had amassed 1,091 goals, adding up to those of the friendly.
Pelé’s Instagram biography says he is the “greatest scorer of all time (1,283)”.
However, if only official matches are the measure criterion, it is said that the Brazilian remains Josef Bican, who, according to football historians, scored 805 goals between 1931 and 1955, playing for a dozen clubs, as well as for Austria and Czechoslovakia.
“Pepi,” as he called it, is credited with 805 goals in 530 games, which gives him a career average of 1. 52 goals consistent with the game,” FIFA. com said in an article committed to him last year.
This issue, however, includes 27 targets for Rapid Vienna’s reserve and amateur groups, as well as some that have been scored in official foreign matches.
The relief of these moves puts Bican in 759 goals in just 495 games, the online page of foreign football studios RSSSF (Rec. Sport Soccer Statistics Foundation) indicates that there is a partial lack of knowledge for the 1952 season in the Czech division.
Pelé is credited with 757 to 767 goals in competitive matches of his career, which included 92 Brazilian internationals and two seasons with the New York Cosmos.
He is ranked third (767) through RSSSF Romario, who helped Brazil at the 1994 World Cup and finished with 772 goals.
Romario celebrated having achieved a “personal recount” of 1,000 in 2007, a total that included youth movements and friendly matches and testimonies.
Other reports and statisticians recommend that Romario’s official career is only 750 after a globetrotting career that included episodes in PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona, Flamengo, Miami FC and Adelaide United.
As for Messi, who at 33 is Ronaldo’s junior of two, he has 719 from Barcelona and Argentina and will certainly be taken into account in the equation before finishing.
What is certain is that even if Ronaldo has not broken the record of all time, the mark is very accurate for a player who continues to score at remarkable speed as he approaches his 36th birthday.