Has Cristiano Ronaldo overtaken Pele in the all-time goalscoring charts?
It’s a question that seems to be baffling everyone, with Italian reports suggesting this week that the Portuguese superstar is still a couple behind the Brazilian icon. Paddy Power News reported late last year that Pele was not prepared to give up his crown without a fight and reports coming out of Brazil now suggest that the whole saga could be about to turn a little nasty.
The Brazilian icon is understood to be fuming with the amount of piss-taking that goes on regarding his goal tally.
Brazilian football legend Pele answers journalist’s questions next to the FIFA World Cup trophy during a press conference, on March 9, 2014 outside the Hotel de Ville in Paris. The FIFA World Cup trophy arrived with its ambassador Pele in Paris on March 9, 2014 and will be exhibited on the Hotel de Ville plaza until March 10. AFP PHOTO / FRANCK FIFE (Photo credit should read FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images)
It’s no secret that when he became the first player to (allegedly) score 1000 goals, a good majority of those were bagged in non-descript friendlies and practice matches, with the Brazilian also claiming his solo effort in the movie Escape to Victory as an addition to the total.
And the man who many consider the finest player to ever put on a pair of boots showed the controversy was getting to him this week as he sensationally ripped into his Portuguese goal-grabbing rival.
“He might have the goal-scoring record, but I’ll always have the Viagra,” he roared in a furious tirade this week, referring to his exclusive Brand Ambassador role for Pfizer, one of the worlds biggest makers of the drug, since 2002.
Pele continued his attack against CR7 by asking; “Can he claim to have been Japan’s first ambassador for erectile dysfunction? I can.”
The gloves were obviously well and truly off now and when a journalist had the temerity to mention that whilst Ronaldo may not be able to tell friends that he’s advised Tokyo’s residents on the best way to get a stiffy, he can boast image rights that allows him the ability to swap private jets like the rest of us change socks, Pele replied;
“Don’t talk to me about image rights, I was the face of Atari video consoles before this joker was even born.”
And while the ex-Real Madrid and Man United star may have over 260 million followers on Instagram, even this statistic failed to impress the three-time World Cup winner, who took another swipe at the Portuguese star.
“Ask Ronaldo if he’s ever played a round of golf with Burt Reynolds?* or been pictured on a water bed necking champagne out of the bottle with Olivia Newton-John?** Then we’ll see who the real king is,” he proudly declared to general bemusement, before explaining how, in the seventies, to promote soccer in the US, he would party the night away with Hollywood A-Listers, while Ronaldo prefers to “stay in counting his supercars and playing scrabble.”
“The world’s biggest stars would line up for photographs with me while Franz Beckenbauer got the drinks in.”
And it seems environmental issues are also close to the 80-year-old’s heart, unlike Ronaldo who he claims should be “ashamed of himself for having a different car and jet, for every day of the week,” before explaining how the sandals he was wearing are made out of recycled tyres.
Real Madrid’s Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo (L) delivers a speech next to Brazilian football legend Pele after receiving the 2013 FIFA Ballon d’Or award for player of the year during the FIFA Ballon d’Or award ceremony at the Kongresshaus in Zurich on January 13, 2014. AFP PHOTO / OLIVIER MORIN (Photo credit should read OLIVIER MORIN/AFP via Getty Images)
“I was brand ambassador for these back in 2008, they gave me two thousand pairs of the bloody things. I got some mates to knock them out on Copacabana Beach, but I’ve still got around 1000 left. D’you want a pair?”
“I also want to get kids more active and away from their video consoles where they all seem to want be Ronaldo,” he continued as the assembled media politely declined his offer. “I was promoting healthy eating by putting his name to Subway’s new low-fat range of sandwiches back in 2014.”
Though, when it was also pointed out to the great man that in the past he’s not been afraid to promote junk food by filling his face on primetime TV with Big Macs, he simply answered that: “If it was good enough for my dear old friend Sir Bobby Charlton’s Soccer Schools, then it’s good enough for me,” before claiming that England would win the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
*A 70’s icon famous for wearing bad hair pieces and making terrible movies
** Ask your dad
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