After scoring a double in Manchester United's 3-2 victory over Arsenal last Thursday, Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo broke the 800 goal barrier in his career with clubs and the national team, but is he considered the best scorer in history after this achievement?
In contrast to the various statistics that monitor all the details of the matches, the roles of the players and their performance during the various tournaments, the situation changes when talking about the statistics related to the best scorer in the history of football.
When the question is asked, some may rush to answer directly that it belongs to Ronaldo, who reaps more records in every match he plays with his team or Portugal.
Ronaldo raised his score to 801 goals during his career, including 5 goals with Sporting Portugal, 450 with Real Madrid, 101 with Juventus, 130 with Manchester United, and 115 with Portugal.
And the admiration for this distinguished figure for Ronaldo increases when we realize that he is approaching his 37th birthday celebration soon, without affecting his ability to achieve more records.
But according to a report published by the French website RMC, Ronaldo's goal score does not give the Portuguese star the title of best scorer in history, because the title is disputed by a number of football players.
The first contender for the title was Josef "Baby" Bikan, the Austrian Czechoslovak striker who died in 2001, who scored 805 goals in 530 games between 1937 and 1948.
Unfortunately for the player, the absence of the World Cup in 1942 and 1946 due to World War II, an opportunity that would have given him greater fame in the world.
The second contender for the title of best scorer is Brazilian football legend Pele, who is proud, through his official account via Instagram, of scoring 1283 goals between 1956, when he first appeared with Santos, and 1977, when he played his last match with the New York Cosmos.
For his part, the former Brazilian striker Romario claims that he scored more than a thousand goals in his career, but that number combined the goals he scored in the youth category and his goals in friendly matches and even exhibition.
The International Football Association "FIFA" (FIFA) does not provide an accurate statistics for the best scorer in history, and to fill this void, one of the organizations tried to compile reliable figures from multiple sources, and put a ranking of the best scorers.
The ranking set by the Football Statistics Organization shows that German Erwin Helmchen is the leader with 982 goals during his career in the thirties of the last century, followed by Bekan (948 goals) and Englishman Ronnie Rock (886 goals).
And things did not end there, as the Czech Football Association recently came out claiming that the best scorer of all time is Pekan, but with 821 goals.
The federation attached this statistic - in a tweet he posted on Twitter - with advice to Ronaldo, which said, "You have to work harder to break this record."