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The Brazilian club believes that Pelé is unfairly overlooked by 448 goals.
Santos’ press office issued a statement denying that Barcelona striker Lionel Messi broke the legendary Brazilian Pelé’s goal record with a club.
Messi scored his 644 goal with Barça and surpassed Pelé’s 643 with Santos. However, the Santos Association of Researchers and Historians states that the King of Soccer has scored 1,091 goals for the club in total if all matches are taken into account.
“448 goals, which today are being ignored, were scored against the main clubs of those seasons. Pelé scored 9 goals each against América (Mexico) and Colo Colo (Chile), as well as 8 goals for Inter, one of the main European clubs in 1960. The list is huge: River Plate, Boca Juniors, Racing, University of Chile, Real Madrid, Juventus, Lazio, Napoli, Benfica and Anderlecht. Barcelona itself, where Messi plays, was also one of the Pele victims – 4 goals scored in 4 games.
Some analysts claim that many of those 448 goals scored in friendly matches were against weak opponents, such as small or regional teams. However, these matches were officially played with the official rules of the game and officially recorded.
We must remember that clubs could only play friendly matches with the approval of the regional and national federations. This is one of the rules introduced by FIFA, the organizer of world football. Subjective attributes like opponents strength are not ideal for compiling stats. The goal against Eibar matches statistically with the goal against Valencia. A goal against Transvaal (of Suriname) has the same value as a goal against Real Madrid, “Santos said in a statement.
Pele himself has already congratulated Messi on the record.
