Juventus and Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo passed legendary Brazilian forward Pele to become the second-highest goalscorer ever with his double against Udinese.
Ronaldo, 35, scored twice in the 4-1 win to keep the pressure on the top four in Serie A.
But on a personal level, the goals ensured he pipped three-time FIFA World Cup winner Pele in the all-time list.
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Pele managed a staggering record of 757 official goals during his stellar career between 1956 and 1977 for Santos, New York Cosmos and Brazil.
Ronaldo, though, hit goals No 757 and 758 to equal and then move past Pele.
The first came when he collected the ball on the left, drove into the box and unleashed a drive into the far corner, giving the goalkeeper no chance.
He added his second – and Juve’s third – with a left-footed finish when through one on one.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner also got the assist for Federico Chiesa with a sublime pass to make it 2-0 at the Allianz Stadium before Paulo Dybala wrapped up the scoring.
And he is now just one goal behind Josef Bican’s incredible tally of 759 from 1931 to 1955 – so will be looking to move clear as the ultimate No1 with games against AC Milan and Sassuolo next week.
More than half of Ronaldo’s strikes came during his nine years at the Bernabeu.
The rest have been for Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United, Juventus and 102 on the international stage for Portugal.
The new landmark comes just weeks after Lionel Messi broke Pele’s record tally for the most goals with one club.
Pele managed 643 Santos goals but Messi overtook that when he found the net for the 644th time in a Barcelona shirt just before Christmas.
Santos, however, released an astonishing statement to deny their hero’s tally was actually surpassed.
1 Comment
Long before Messi scored 644, Ronaldo has surpassed all that but even exceeded the records by beating Pele’s goal scoring . Everything here shows that Pele is the greatest footballer in the world . It took years for these two guys to break his record. Wow!