Cristiano Ronaldo is undoubtedly one of the biggest media figures in the history of football. For many, the Portuguese is nothing less than the best European footballer of all time, while others label him directly as the greatest of all time.
What is undeniable is that he is a football legend who, at 39 years old, continues to make headlines both for what he does on the field and for his statements off it.
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A mockery of Pelé?
Recently, on his successful and newly launched YouTube channel, UR · Cristiano, the Portuguese star spoke with a former teammate at Manchester United, Rio Ferdinand, and commented on his next big personal goal, leaving a slight critique, perhaps somewhat mocking, towards Pelé:
“The best milestone I aspire to in football is, first, to reach 900 goals, so that my challenge afterward is to reach 1000. But with a big difference, all my goals are filmed, so I can prove them. They are all on video.”
At that moment, his teammate, Rio Ferdinand, mentioned: “Are you talking about Di Stéfano, Pelé?” to which CR7 replied:
“Listen, I respect all of them, but my goals, they are all goals… And if you want more goals, we can count the ones I score in training too. No problem.” The Portuguese closed.
These statements, naturally, were not taken well by the Brazilian public who, aware of the mockery surrounding Pelé, who allegedly did not score all the goals he claimed to have scored and “counted the goals he made in training” and “those from the schoolyard,” saw these remarks as a direct mockery of Pelé.
Hours after these statements went viral, the official Brasileirão account on X (formerly Twitter) posted a video showing the moment Pelé scored his 1000th professional goal in a match against Vasco da Gama.
The names of Cristiano and the late Pelé trended for practically the entire night, with fans from around the world leaving their comments regarding these “disrespectful” statements from Cristiano, while many defended the Portuguese for the lack of recorded material on those statistics of O Rei.
Did Pelé score more than 1000 goals?
According to organizations of the magnitude of FIFA, IFFHS, or Guinness World Records, yes.
Pelé received countless recognitions, certificates, and awards validating him as the all-time leading scorer at the professional level with 1,281 goals in 1,363 games, information verifiable on the official FIFA website.
