[2] Taking into account competitions of all levels, 79 players have reached the milestone, according to research by the RSSSF,[3] an organisation described by German newspaper Der Spiegel as a "Wikipedia of football statistics".
[5] Nine players have accomplished the feat at a single club: Josef Bican (Slavia Prague), Jimmy Jones (Glenavon), Jimmy McGrory (Celtic), Joe Bambrick (Linfield), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Gerd Müller (Bayern Munich), Pelé (Santos), Fernando Peyroteo (Sporting CP), and Uwe Seeler (Hamburg).
[24] Media outlets around the world such as Sky Sports, ESPN, and Globo Esporte argue that, for Brazilian forward Pelé and players of his era, friendly matches were highly important fixtures and held more resonance, and the tallies accumulated should be included,[25][26][27] while journalist Hugh McIlvanney once described them as mere "profit-making excursions" that bore little "relevance to Pelé's reality as a great player",[28] and Jonathan Liew stated that many of the friendlies were "against up-country teams or down-at-heel invitational sides".
[32] When reporting the statistics of Messi, Barcelona argued that because Bican and Pelé, as well as Erwin Helmchen and Abe Lenstra, scored the majority of their goals in leagues which were not played at a national level, their tallies should not be counted,[33] while goals scored during war-time matches, in lower-tiers, and regional divisions, by players such as Bican, Ferenc Deák, Puskás, Seeler, Müller, Túlio Maravilha, and Robert Lewandowski, are also questioned.
[34] In 2021, Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo was reported to have broken the record when he scored his 760th goal,[35][36][37] although it was widely acknowledged it was impossible to quantify with certainty as statistics from previous generations are often disputed,[19][38][39][40][41][42] as highlighted by football journalist Jonathan Wilson and Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport's editor Ivan Zazzaroni, who recognised the possibility that German striker Helmchen had scored 981 goals.