How many goals did Pele score? 1,283 goal claim explained

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Football may be about to lose one of its greatest legends as Pele has reportedly moved to end-of-life care after a battle with cancer.

Sadly, the Brazilian legend has stopped responding to his chemotherapy treatment and he’s now receiving palliative care.

Pele will go down in history as one of world football’s biggest and greatest superstars, but in recent years there has been an element of controversy around a part of his legacy.

Indeed, many football fans have disputed Pele’s goalscoring feats, arguing that his goal tally is largely inflated by strikes that either never happened or were scored in unofficial competition.

To set the record straight, we’re going to look at Pele’s goalscoring record in detail.

How many goals did Pele score?

According to the man himself, he scored 1,283 goals in his career.

That would make him by far and away the greatest goalscorer in football history, but there are some differing claims doing the rounds here.

Guinness World Records recognise Pele as the greatest goalscorer of all-time, but their tally stands at 1,279 rather than 1,283, while the RSSSF recognise that Pele has scored just 778 career goals.

So, what is the truth?

Well, in official competition, Pele did score 778 goals, but his inflated tally comes from friendly matches and tour games that Santos would play at the time.

He also counted games he played for the Sixth Coast Guard in a military competition against non-professionals, so you do have to take that with a pinch of salt.

As a Brazilian side, Santos would often tour Europe in order to test themselves against the so-called world’s best teams.

However, friendly games usually aren’t counted as official matches, so 778 is Pele’s ‘true’ tally if we’re counting his goals in the same way we would any other player.

Be it 778, 1,283 or 1,279, Pele’s goalscoring numbers are nothing short of ridiculous, and while he didn’t truly break that 1,000 goal barrier, he still remains one of the greatest goalscorers in the history of this sport.