Brazil icon Pele has trolled modern great Cristiano Ronaldo by rewriting history on social media just a day after the Juventus star thought he had broken his goals record, updating his total to claim he scored a vast 1,283 times.
Fans were astonished to spot that Pele, who has also been at the center of a row over whether Barcelona striker Lionel Messi recently broke another of his records, had updated his mammoth career goals haul.
While the accepted record books had shown that the revered striker had scored 757 goals across his celebrated career, eagle-eyed followers noticed that a cheeky edit had been made to Pele’s Instagram page hours after Ronaldo’s landmark.
The stand-out line on Pele’s biographical details insistently read: “Leading Goal Scorer of All Time (1,283)”.
January 3rd: @Cristiano surpasses Pelé’s goal record of 758 goals ⚽️January 4th: Pelé updates his Instagram bio to claim that he actually scored 1283 ? pic.twitter.com/OgCx6R9s7r
Pele changing his CV pic.twitter.com/IPOZDlPR2o
Pele counting all the goals scored with him on Fifa pic.twitter.com/VPQ0RW18dl
The club where Pele scored the vast majority of his goals, Santos, argued last month that hotshot Messi’s claim to have beaten Pele’s count for one club was invalid.
Many observers laughed those remarks off, accusing the Brazilian side of counting goals that had never previously been recognized in official competitions.
Now the 80-year-old appears to have waded into the argument around how many times he found the net during his 21-year career, which ended with a two-year spell at the New York Cosmos.
Pele every time pic.twitter.com/XB1wxyvdy2
pic.twitter.com/2MXGHpj48X
pic.twitter.com/W4ehs2IPP7
Ronaldo was widely congratulated for moving a goal behind Josef Bican’s all-time goals record with a brace for Juventus against Udinese on Sunday, but Pele appears determined to dispute that feat.
“The man is shameless,” said one supporter, while others produced a torrent of memes mocking the updated figure and showing Ronaldo laughing at the suggestion.
“Too bad Ronaldo didn’t keep his stats of goals scored in the academy and in training,” added another.
Pele includes goals scored in training, friendlies, exhibitions & FIFA 18-21.
The man is shameless ?
Och, why has he done this? I still think Pelé is the greatest so he has no need to add goals scored through friendly/exhibition games.
FIFA does not count the extra 526 goals claimed by Pele because they took place in charity matches.
The three-time World Cup winner is yet to officially congratulate Ronaldo, although he did send a message to Messi – the Portugal captain’s arch-rival in terms of goals – when the Barca captain scored his apparently record-breaking 644th for the only club of his career.
“Stories like ours, of loving the same club for so long, unfortunately will be increasingly rare in football,” Pele told the Argentina forward in a post. “I admire you very much.”
