Santos Issue Damning Response To Jamie Carragher After He Says Pele's Goal Record Is A 'Myth'

Santos have hit back at Jamie Carragher after he described Pele's goal record as a "myth".

The Liverpool legend made the claim on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football episode this week.

Speaking with Gary Neville and host Dave Jones, Carragher said: "I mentioned something during the meeting today, Pele's a bit of a myth, I'm not having this 1,000 goals. So that went down well."

Pele, despite being one of the greatest of all time and a three-time World Cup winner, has become a meme in recent times and his goals record has been dismantled on many an occasion.

According to FIFA, Pele scored 767 career goals - including 643 official strikes for Santos. But the Brazilian giants claim he actually scored 1,091 goals for them.

And after seeing Carragher's comments, Santos responded on Twitter on Wednesday night. They posted a picture of their greatest ever player with his three World Cup trophies, complete with the caption: "The King was extremely concerned about the dispute over his greatness and his insurmountable numbers. Don't cry [laugh emoji]."

Carragher was busy doing punditry for Sky on Wednesday evening and so is yet to reply to Santos.

Fans have commonly slammed Pele for seemingly counting every single goal he scored - whether it was in the park or in a friendly - and it's affected how he's viewed in the modern game.

In January last year, Cristiano Ronaldo scored brace in a 4-1 win for Juventus over Udinese and that moved him one ahead of Pele in the all-time goalscoring rankings.

Fans thought Pele had changed his Instagram bio to state that he was still football's top scorer with 1,283 goals.

The legendary striker then took to Twitter to set the record straight - claiming his bio had not changed at all.

"I was accused by the press of having changed my Instagram bio to overshadow these big stars that are breaking my records," Pele wrote, roughly translated.

"The bio text has always been the same since I joined the platform. None of this should distract us from your incredible achievements."

When Messi became the highest-goalscorer for a single club in December 2020 thanks to a strike against Real Valladolid, Santos put a lengthy statement where they said 'official games' against the likes of Real Madrid and Juventus should be included in Pele's tally.

Featured Image Credit: Image: Sky Sports & Santos

Topics: Santos, Jamie Carragher, Brazil

Josh Lawless

Josh is a sports journalist who specialises in football and wrestling. He has been published by Curzon Ashton FC, Late Tackle, Manchester City FC, The Mirror, Read Man City and Manchester Evening News. He provides coverage of professional wrestling and has interviewed some of the biggest names in the field - including the first UK interview with The Hardy Boyz after their return to WWE. He has never sported a pair of Lonsdale Slip-ons, contrary to reports.

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