Brazilian football club, Santos have refused to accept that Lionel Messi has broken Pele’s all-time goal scoring record.
This came after Messi scored against Valladolid to net his 644th goal which according to reports, edged Pele’s alleged 643 goal record for Santos.
According to the Brazilian club in lengthy statement, Messi actually needs to score another 447 times to match Pele’s real goal tally for the club, which they pegged at 1,091.
The club say that Pele scored an additional 448 times in matches and friendly competitions which were deemed to to be at a lesser value.
It is claimed that the Brazilian icon’s goals against the likes of River Plate, Boca Juniors, Real Madrid, Juventus, Lazio, Napoli, Benfica and Anderlecht are not included in the official tally, nor are eight goals against Inter Milan or four goals against the Blaugrana.
“The argument of some analysts is that so many of these 448 goals scored in amiable disputes were in front of fragile opponents, such as small selections or regional combined.
“Still, the matches were played in official uniforms, with the official rules of the game’
“We have to remember that clubs could only play friendlies with the endorsement of regional and national federations, one of the rules imposed by FIFA, the organiser of world football.
“A goal against Eibar is worth the same, statistically, than the one scored against Valencia. A goal against Transvaal (from Suriname) has the same value as Real Madrid in the middle of the Santiago Bernabéu.
“Even this separation of ‘official goals’ is a recent fact, after all publications of European clubs and athletes count the friendly matches in their statistics,” the club’s statement read partly on it’s official website.
Pele achieved his goal scoring feat for Santos between 1956 and 1974, while Messi is in his 17th season at the Nou Camp after making his first-team debut in 2004.
