Brazilian club Santos have openly disputed the claim that Barcelona talisman and skipper Lionel Messi has broken the long-term goalscoring record held by their former superstar Pele.<\/p>\n
Messi had earlier this week eclipsed Pele\u2019s all-time record of 643 goals scored for a single club in Barca\u2019s match against Real Valladolid and it was thought that his goals tally of 644 for the Blaugrana had set a new all-time record.<\/p>\n
Santos have now released an official statement\u00a0insisting that Pele actually scored 1,091 goals for Santos and not the reported 643, qualifying that Pele scored an additional 448 goals in matches and friendly competitions which were subsequently deemed to be at a lesser level. Santos claim that Pele\u2019s goals against River Plate, Boca Juniors, Racing, Universidad de Chile, Real Madrid, Juventus, Lazio, Napoli, Benfica and Anderlecht are not included in the official tally, nor are eight goals against Inter or four goals against the Blaugrana.<\/p>\n
The Brazilian club\u2019s argument is that the matches were official as they were played with official teams and the rules of the game, so should count for that number rather than just the 643.<\/p>\n
If that were the case, why then did the Brazilian great himself send his official congratulations to Messi when the Barca ace match his 643 goals tally earlier?<\/p>\n
This should provide food for thought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"