Brazilian & Football legend Pele’s former club Santos have claimed that Messi scoring his 644th goal for Barcelona against Real Valladolid on Tuesday last week, isn’t the record breaking number of goals for one club and is actually shy of the mark by a couple hundred.

Santos claim 448 goals in friendlies have gone uncounted and “a goal against Transvaal (from Suriname) has the same value as one against Real Madrid”

“The argument of some analysts is that so many of these 448 goals scored in friendly matches were faced with weak opponents, such as small or regional teams. Even so, the matches were played in official uniforms, with the official rules of the game and with a score sheet.

In all of the debating it must be said that Pele himself doesn’t seem too bothered by Messi eclipsing him.

He wrote in an Instagram post : “Congratulations on your historic record, Lionel. But above all, congratulations on your beautiful career at Barcelona. Stories like ours, of loving the same club for so long, unfortunately will be increasingly rare in football. I admire you very much.”