How many goals has Pele scored in his football career?

Many believe that Pele is the greatest football player in the history of this sport. But on what grounds? It turns out, according to most sources, Pele is the player who scored the most goals in his career. Is it true? It would seem that statistics are available, what questions can there be? But in reality, everything is a bit more complicated, so it's worth considering in more detail how many goals Pele scored during his career. Was there really more than a thousand? If you want to know how many goals Pele scored during his career, then you should get acquainted with this material, because here you will find an exhaustive answer to this question.

Total number of goals

So, it's time to find out how many goals Pele scored during his entire career. Most sources indicate that he became the author of 1279 goals in 1363 matches. Really incredible, is not it? Firstly, not every football player will win back as many matches in his entire career, and at the same time, he will also chop up so many goals. This result really causes respect and gives the right to call Pele the best player in history.

However, there is one detail that slightly spoils the statistics. The fact is that not all sources recognize these statistics, offering another, still impressive, but a little more modest. On what grounds? It's time to figure out what's wrong. How many goals have Pele scored in his career in fact?

Goals for the national team

It's worth starting with his performances for the Brazilian national team. Statistics Pele in the national team is undeniable, and already on it you can judge that this is an outstanding player of his time. He made his debut in the national team in 1957 and scored two goals in the first two matches. For the national team he played until 1971, and for this time he entered the field 92 times, scoring 77 goals. Naturally, this is a small part of its overall result, so do not delay at this point. It's time to consider all the other goals of this legendary player.

Goals in America

It's no secret that Pele is a football player who has not played in Europe, the strongest football continent. This fact already gives many experts the right to believe that statistics are not enough. However, in this article, no one assesses the abilities of Pele, here you will learn only the dry facts about the number of goals scored by them.

So, everyone knows that Pele spent the ending of his career in the USA, at the club "New York Cosmos". There he performed for three years, played in 107 games and scored 64 goals. And this despite the fact that he came to the club at the age of 35, when the majority of players finish their careers! Thus, the total is 199 matches and 141 goals. Still a small part of what this football player managed to achieve.

Goals in Brazil

Pele began his professional career in 1957 as part of the club "Santos", and in the first season he created a miracle. At the age of 17 he beat 41 goals in 38 games. In the second season, he put an incredible record, scoring 66 goals in 46 games - this is the maximum amount that he scored in one season in his career. As you already know, in 1975 he moved to the United States. How many games did Pele play, and how many goals scored between 1957 and 1975 in Santos?

The result may surprise you, since during this time Pele played 658 matches, scoring 643 goals. However, the amount still does not converge: it turns out that he went on the field 855 times and scored 784 goals. This is an amazing result, but it is far from the claimed thousand goals.

Unofficial club matches

The thing is that Pele, along with "Santos" took part in a huge number of friendly matches for this period. He played 464 unofficial friendly matches, in which he scored 444 goals - this already explains how most sources attribute to him more than a thousand goals.

Now you know how many goals Pele scored for his career, and you can do your own conclusions on whether he is the best forward in the history.