The Juventus and Portugal frontman has reached 760 efforts for club and country, with many suggesting that he now heads another all-time list
Cristiano Ronaldo’s claims to being the greatest goalscorer of all time have been refuted by the Czech Football Association, with it their opinion that Josef Bican found the target on 821 occasions over the course of his career.
They have been looking into the matter after seeing Juventus and Portugal forward Ronaldo placed at the top of another notable chart.
It has been claimed that the 35-year-old’s latest effort, which came in the Super Cup win over Napoli, edged him above Bican as the most prolific marksman to ever play the game.
The strike was Ronaldo’s 760th for club and country, with Bican said to be one back on that mark. Pele is placed third on the list with 757 goals to his name, fellow Brazilian Romario in fourth with 743 and Barcelona icon Lionel Messi completes the top five with 719.
The Czechs however are taking issue with claims that one of their own has been usurped.
For them, Bican – who shone for Rapid Vienna and Slavia Prague between 1931 and 1955 – remains out on his own.
They have his tally sitting well above the mark Ronaldo has just passed, with a further 62 efforts being added to his haul.
The History and Statistics Committee of the Czech FA have been investigating, and Jaroslav Kolar said: “Josef Bican or Cristiano Ronaldo? Simple question but complicated answer. Mainly because from the whole amount of Bican’s goals you have to pick just the official ones, which is complicated.
“Our History and Statistics Committee of the Czech FA started to deal with this problem.
“We based our research on statistics from prestigious international statistical websites that state 805 goals with notice that goals scored by Bican in 1952 in the Czech Second Division for Hradec Kralove are missing.
“We managed to find them – by the way, it’s 53 goals in 26 games – and we also double-checked every detail about Bican’s league, cup and international matches.
“After that, we came out with the official number of Josef Bican’s scored goals. We can proclaim that Josef Bican scored 821 goals in official matches.
“It means that Cristiano Ronaldo is not the best goalscorer in history yet, and he has to work more to break this record.”
Pele and Romario have both previously claimed to have scored more than 1,000 goals over the course of their respective careers.
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