SAN FRANCISCO, December 28, (THEWILL) – Santos FC, the Brazilian sports club based in Vila Belmiro, has come forward to dispute the claim that Barcelona captain and star Lionel Messi broke the long-term goalscoring record held by their former superstar Pele days after a Budweiser promotion of the feat that sent limited edition bottles of the beer to all 160 goalkeepers against whom Messi scored his record number of goals.
The Argentine goal-machine scored his 644th goal for the Blaugrana earlier this week against Real Valladolid. With the all-time record for goals scored at just one club set by Pele with Santos standing at 643, congratulations and felicitations greeted Messi’s achieving another milestone in his catalogue of milestones.
The imperial Pele, now 80, who made his Santos debut aged 15 in 1956 and left in 1974 after winning six Brazilian league titles plus two Copa Libertadores titles, had congratulated Messi in an Instagram post earlier when the latter equalled his record of 643 goals.
“When your heart overflows with love, it is difficult to change your path. Like you, I know what it’s like to love wearing the same shirt every day,” Pele’s post began.
“Like you, I know that there is nothing better than the place we feel at home. Congratulations on your historic record, Lionel. But above all, congratulations on your beautiful career at Barcelona.
“Stories like ours, of loving the same club for so long, unfortunately will be increasingly rare in football. I admire you very much.”
In its reaction, the Brazilian club released a lengthy statement in which they insisted that the world was wrong to believe Pele only scored 643 goals. They claimed that the actual tally of goals scored by their world renowned striker stands at 1,091 goals.
They arrived at this additional set of 448 goals by including results from matches and friendly competitions which were previously deemed to be at a sub-competitive level. They rejected that characterisation because they argue that goals were goals and must all be treated equal rather than as if some had less value than the others.
Their contention is that Pele’s goals against River Plate, Boca Juniors, Racing, Universidad de Chile, Real Madrid, Juventus, Lazio, Napoli, Benfica and Anderlecht were not included in the official tally, nor are eight goals against Inter nor four goals against the Blaugrana themselves.
In their submission, Santos’ argument holds that these matches were official as they were played with official teams and the rules of the game, so should count towards Pele’s total which brings it up to 1,091 rather than the paltry 643 everyone was hooked on.
By such reckoning, not only has Messi not surpassed the true all-time record for one team but he still has a long way to go and, for the time being, has no clear path towards ever reaching that landmark given the decrease in his average goals per game which has come with age, depreciation on form and adaptation of defenders to his style of play.
The fact that Santos took so long to come up with this claim also leaves a sour taste in the mouth. It has not been a secret that Messi was on the verge of equalling and certainly surpassing Pele’s haul within the recent weeks across the sporting media.
They remained silent about their position in the discourse until after Pele himself celebrated Messi equalling his goal numbers and the world joined when he went on to 644 before they found their voice to come forward with the disruptive argument in favour of 1,091 goals for Pele. If not anything, it smacks of a desperate attempt to be in the news and ride that cheap popularity for everything it offers rather than actually setting the records straight.
At the moment, neither Messi nor Pele have responded as both camps have decidedly given the revelation the silent treatment. Which is not more than Santos FC deserves.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
