We are talking about two of the most successful players of all time, and while people like to compare their legacies, the truth is that both have reasons to take pride in their respective résumés.

But the Argentine superstar seems to be enjoying a better ending to his career, having just won the World Cup and being on pace to win the Ballon d’Or for the eighth occasion. Besides, Messi now has more world records than Ronaldo.

Guinness World Records names Messi as the soccer player with most titles

Lionel Messi now boasts 41 Guinness World Records titles, whereas Cristiano Ronaldo has 40 to his name. The Inter Miami star achieved this feat during his team’s 4-0 victory over Atlanta United in the 2023 Leagues Cup.

With 3.4 billion views online, Leo’s second goal reportedly became the most-watched live event in American history. Messi also holds the world record for the most goals in a Champions League game (five), the most World Cup matches played (26), the most goals scored in a calendar year (86 in 2012) and the most World Cup Player of the Match awards (11).

Ronaldo is second on the list of soccer player with most world records, having reached his 40th title earlier this year for being the top-earning athlete on Earth. Robert Lewandowski (9), Kylian Mbappe (5), and Neymar (4) complete the top five, though they’re not even close to the top two on the ranking.

At the club level, though Pele never went to Europe, the stats are also incredible during almost two decades playing for his beloved Santos FC in Brazil. In the last years of his career, Edson Arantes do Nascimento went to the United States and played with Cosmos of New York. It was an amazing stint sharing the field with other stars such as Franz Beckenbauer.

One of the biggest questions regarding Pele and his legendary career is how many goals he scored. There’s a lot of controversy in a topic which is crucial to establish him as the greatest player of all time when talking about him, Diego Armando Maradona or Lionel Messi. Read here to find out this incredible stat of O’Rei.

How many goals Pele scored in his career?

This is an enormous debate for soccer experts. According to many official reports, Pele scored 643 goals with Santos FC and FIFA has a total count of 767 during his career (club and international level).

However, especially for famous statisticians in Brazil, the amount of goals scored by Pele is way higher. In fact, the total count with Santos FC could be 1091 goals and 1282 goals for his entire career. Indeed, that was part of his legend. The man who broke the 1000-goals mark.

At the same time, many experts agree that Pele scored more than 500 goals during friendly matches in a period of time in whichCopa Libertadores, the most famous club tournament in America, was just havingitsfirst steps. Pele was already a star before that.

By the way, Guinness World Records says this about Pele. “The most goals scored in a specified period is 1279 by Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Brazil) (b. 23 Oct 1940), known as Pelé, from 7 Sep 1956 to 1 Oct 1977 in 1,363 games.”