Santos in an official statement: Messi has not broken Pele’s legendary record

Brazilian club Santos issued a statement on its official website confirming that Barcelona star Lionel Messi has not broken the record of Brazilian legend Pelé for the number of goals scored with a team.

Messi scored a goal in Valladolid’s game last Tuesday in the Spanish League, which ended with Barcelona’s victory (0-3), to overtake Pelé and become the player with the most goals for a club with 644 goals.

But Santos FC confirmed that Pelé scored 1,091 goals throughout his career with the team during the 18-year period from 1956 to 1974, but only 643 of those were in official matches.

The Santos club said in a statement: “Pelé scored 1,091 goals for Santos, and they are trying to cancel 448 goals in friendly matches, as if they were less valuable than others.”

He added: “Those goals were scored against prominent clubs, as Club América from Mexico and Colo Colo from Chile each received 9 goals from Pelé, and Inter Milan, one of the most prominent European teams of the 1960s. , received 8 from the king “. .

He continued: “The list of Pelé’s victims is enormous and has weight: River Plate, Boca Juniors, Racing, Universidad de Chile, Real Madrid, Juventus, Lazio, Napoli, Benfica, Anderlecht, and Barcelona itself, for which Messi plays now, he received four goals from Pele in four. Matches. “

He continued: “Some analysts believe that many of those 448 goals that Pelé scored in friendly matches were against a small or regional squad, although the matches were played officially and with the official rules of the game and when entering data in the protocol, we must remember that clubs cannot play amicably. Except with the approval of the regional and national federations. “

The statement continues: “Taking into account subjective characteristics such as the weakness of the rival is not ideal to collect statistical data, the numbers speak for themselves, the goal against Eibar is equivalent to a goal against Valencia, the goal against Transvaal ( Surinam) has the same value as the goal scored for Real Madrid in the heart of the Santiago Bernabéu stadium. “.

It is reported that Pelé congratulated Messi after he managed to equal his record, sending him a message through his account on the social network “Instagram” in which he said: “Congratulations on achieving a historical record, Lionel. I congratulate you on your success. professional career with Barcelona. Stories like our love stories “. Unfortunately, the same club for a long time will be increasingly rare in football. “