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Lionel Messi Officially Overtakes Pele As Second Greatest Goalscorer In History

Lionel Messi Officially Overtakes Pele As Second Greatest Goalscorer In History

An underwhelming season at Paris Saint-Germain has still seen Messi leapfrog Pele.

Lionel Messi is now the second greatest goalscorer in the history of football despite an underwhelming first season with Paris Saint-Germain.

Messi moved to PSG last summer as a free agent and helped them to Ligue 1 glory but only managed to score six league goals in 26 appearances.

He fared much better in the Champions League, scoring five in just seven games. All in all that's 11 goals and it takes his career tally to a whopping 764.

That's two clear of Brazil legend Pele, who (we stress) officially scored 762 across three decades.

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Alamy

He's unlikely to catch longtime Cristiano Ronaldo at the top, who sits on 813 career goals.

The Argentina international could become the second player in history to hit 800 goals though.

Check out the entire list per IFFHS below:

23. Franz Binder (Austria/Germany) - 502 goals

22. Imre Schlosser (Hungary) - 504 goals

21. Hugo Sanchez (Mexico) - 507 goals

20. Roberto Dinamite (Brazil) - 511 goals

19. Luis Suarez (Uruguay) - 520 goals

18. Gyorgy Sarosi (Hungary) - 526 goals

17. Alfredo Di Stefano (Argentina/Spain) - 530 goals

16. Uwe Seeler (Germany) - 551 goals

15. Jimmy McGrory (Scotland) - 552 goals

14. Fernando Peyroteo (Portugal) - 553 goals

13. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden) - 560 goals

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Alamy

12. Glenn Ferguson (Northern Ireland) - 561 goals

11. Robert Lewandowski (Poland) - 563 goals

10. Joe Bambrick (Northern Ireland) - 616 goals

9. Eusebio (Portugal) - 619 goals

8. Gerd Muller (Germany) - 634 goals

7. Jimmy Jones (Northern Ireland) - 647 goals

6. Josef Bican (Austria/Czechoslovakia) - 720 goals

5. Ferenc Puskas (Hungary) - 729 goals

4. Romario (Brazil) - 755 goals

3. Pele (Brazil) - 762 goals

2. Lionel Messi (Argentina) - 764 goals

1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) - 813 goals

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Alamy

Ronaldo personally had a strong season back at Manchester United, scoring 24 goals in all competitions.

United, however, finished sixth in the Premier League and failed to qualify for the Champions League.

Their final points total of 58 is also the lowest in club history.

He's committed his future to the Red Devils however and is keen to work under new manager Erik ten Hag.

Featured Image Credit: Alamy

Topics: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo