With a goal against Napoli in the final of the Italian Super Cup (2:0), the 760th in his career, the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo became the best scorer of all time - at least that's what many reports say.
But what is the real truth?
Ronaldo scored five goals for Sporting Lisbon, 118 for Manchester United, 450 for Real Madrid, 85 for Juventus and 102 for Portugal. A total of 760 and those data are official, clear, undeniable...
The confusion, however, arises when his goalscoring record is compared to his goalscoring rivals from the old, oldest days of football.
According to the Foundation for the Collection and Archiving of Statistical Data Related to Soccer (RSSSF), an organization that was founded in 1994 and whose goal is to create the largest and most reliable database of soccer data, the best scorer of all time is not Ronaldo, but (including players who did not play on top level) but Czech Jozef Bikan.
This super-scorer, who played before, during and after World War II, and who died in 2001, scored, according to the RSSSF, as many as 850 goals in just 530 games. Bikan was born in Vienna (Austro-Hungary), he was called Pepi, and in his career he played for five clubs, among them Vienna's Rapid and Prague's Slavia, and two national teams - Austria and Czechoslovakia.
Among those 805 goals are also 27 that he scored while wearing the jerseys of reserve and amateur teams, in matches that were not counted as official and international. Some goals are also disputed because the data related to the Second League of Czechoslovakia from 1952 is partially missing.
Without those, "disputed" goals and games, there remains a "clean" 759 goals in 495 matches - according to that, two nights ago in Reggio Emilia, Ronaldo overtook the Czech on the list of the best goal scorers ever.
However, according to the RSSSF, Ronaldo is not only not in the first place, but also not in the top three. This Foundation, in fact, says that Pele with 772 and Romario with 767 goals are ahead of him. According to that list, Ronaldo is only in fourth place. In addition, both legendary Brazilians claim to have scored over 1.000 goals.
Lionel Messi recently broke Pele's record from Santos with his 644th goal for Barcelona. Immediately, however, Santos responded, claiming that their all-time best player had scored 1.091 goals for the Sao Paulo club, including friendlies.
In Pele's biography, on his Instagram profile, it says: "The best scorer of all time (1.023)".
The confusion is therefore complete.
However, when all goals from friendly and unofficial matches are deleted (including one he scored while playing for the military team), the number that is considered official remains - in the jersey of Santos, the New York Cosmos and the national team of Brazil, Pele scored 757 goals.
Romario celebrated his 2007th career goal back in 1.000, but he counted friendlies, some farewell and unofficial matches, and even matches from younger categories. What the football world clearly knows is that Romario, playing for numerous Brazilian, Spanish, Dutch teams (among them PSV and Barcelona), as well as one club each from America and Australia, as well as the Brazilian national team, scored 745 goals. Although even that varies from report to report…
So, two nights ago in Reggio Emilia, did Cristiano Ronaldo really go down in history as the top scorer of all time? The answers are - maybe, probably, not sure...
What is known for sure is that Leo Messi, who is younger than Ronaldo by two years and four months, lags behind the Portuguese by 41 goals (he has scored 719 so far for Barcelona and the Argentina national team).
In a few years, when both of them finish their careers, at least we will know who scored more goals - Messi or Ronaldo.
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
