Buffon wants Ronaldo to eclipse Pele’s record

Gianluigi Buffon has urged Cristiano Ronaldo to match Pele for career goals after the Portugal star drew level on the all-time list with Ferenc Puskas.

Ronaldo came off the bench to score in Juventus’ 7-0 thrashing of Andorra in Lisbon on Wednesday (November 11), reaching 102 at international level, just seven short of the world record held by Iran’s Ali Daei.

That goal took the Juventus star to 746 for club and country in his storied career, a tally that is said to equal that of Real Madrid and Hungary legend Puskas.

While there is conjecture around the precise number of goals scored by some of the game’s greatest players in the previous century, it is widely claimed that Ronaldo is now behind only Pele (767 goals), Romario (772) and Slavia Prague great Josef Bican (805) on the all-time list.

Juve veteran Buffon now wants his team-mate to haul in Pele and move into history’s top three.
“Grande CR7issimo!!!” he wrote on Twitter on Thursday. “Congrats for this great achievement my friend, 746 goals are an huuuge amount! You reached Puskas, now you have to get Pele!”

Ronaldo, 35, has six goals in four Serie A games this season, having missed four matches in all competitions due to coronavirus. He scored 31 in Italy’s top flight in 2019-20. He will likely have a chance to add to his career tally on Saturday (November 14), when Portugal host France in their penultimate Nations League Group A3 encounter.