Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick as Juventus bounced back from their midweek Champions League exit by beating Cagliari 3-1 away in Serie A on Sunday.
Pele congratulated Ronaldo on the hat-trick that took him past the Brazilian legend’s tally of goals scored in official matches.
The three goals takes his career total to 770 – three clear of Pele’s tally of 767.
Some reports suggest this is a world record tally but that’s disputed by the Czech Football Association, which claims former Austria and Czechoslovakia striker Josef Bican is football’s true all-time top scorer with 821 goals.
Data from Rec. Sport. Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) says Bican scored 805 career goals. But among them were 27 goals for Rapid Vienna’s reserve and amateur teams, as well as strikes which were not in official international games. Remove those and Bican finished his career on 759 goals – short of Pele and Ronaldo’s total.
Meanwhile, Lautaro Martinez scored a late winner as Inter beat Torino 2-1 to move nine points clear at the top of Serie A.
Martinez steered substitute Alexis Sanchez’s cross into the corner with five minutes left to secure Inter’s eighth successive league victory.
Antonio Sanabria had earlier levelled for Torino after Romelu Lukaku opened the scoring from the penalty spot.
Second-placed AC Milan missed the chance to narrow the gap to six points when they lost 1-0 against Napoli.