by Gabriel Tham

Created on: December 15, 2009

Most prolific goal-scorer in football? Ruud van Nistelrooy, Thiery Henry, Raul Gonzalez, Zlaten Ibrahimovic comes to your mind. All these players have once been mentioned in the headlines for scoring bucket loads of goals at one point in their career, they were describe as prolific goal-scorer in the footballing world. Yes, they are wonderful players and excellent strikers, but when you put the word 'most' in front of prolific goal-scorer in football, a certain Brazilian comes to mind, he is none other than FIFA Ambassador, Pele.

Pele is certainly the most prolific goal-scorer in football, he holds a record of scoring 1099 goals in 1096 games, of course some of those goals were highly dubious, but one should still respect the fact that he has actually written himself into the record books of having scored the most amount of goals in a footballing career. One must also remember that Pele is not playing in the modern game today, where new technology creates new boots with light material which makes shooting and running much much easier. The texture of the ball have also changed from hard leather, which would be really heavy on rainy days, to soft leather balls in which the strikers have more advantage of scoring than the goalkeeper saving the shot. Pele played professional football from 1956 to 1977 and in those days, the strikers were not as well protected by the laws of the game as compared to the modern game. Pele dominated the footballing world for two decades with his bags of tricks, skills and goals. Just a mere mention of his name on the team sheet could strike fear into the hearts of opposing defenders.

Another prolific goal-striker would be yet another Brazilian, Romario. Who can forget how Romario dominated the 1994 World Cup with his skills and goals? He is the next man in the footballing world set to reach the 1000 goal club and who will dare say no? Here is a man who played for clubs like PSV Eindhoven and Barcelona. He is as prolific as any striker can get and is definitely someone you wouldn't want to face off against as a defender.

They are many other great legends who you could name as the most prolific goal-scorer in football, Gary Lineker, Micheal Owen comes to mind. But in my opinion, Pele is undoubtedly the most prolific goal-scorer in the footballing world. His goal record would just silence any doubters, a lifelong fan of the beautiful game; he gets my vote as the most prolific goal-scorer in football.

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