English commentator who called Pelé’s thousand goals a myth says it was a joke

Former England defender and commentator Jamie Carragher says that the opinion given about Pele’s thousand goals was a “joke” and that the former Brazilian player “loves” her.

The comment was sent to sheet by the press office of Sky Sports, the channel for which he works.

“It was part of a conversation about goalscoring records and it was related to Cristiano Ronaldo. It was said as ironic,” says the historic Liverpool player.

For the broadcaster, the subject should not even be considered relevant because those who watched the video would have found it to be a light conversation, in a joking tone.

Carragher’s comment caused controversy and outrage on social media in Brazil.

During Monday Night Football, last Monday (14), Carragher was teased by fellow commentator and ex-back Gary Neville.

“Jamie has an interesting theory about [os gols de] Pele”, he provoked, implying that it was a topic that had already been discussed between them off the air.

Then Carragher says he considers the thousand goals scored by the Brazilian “a myth” and that he does not believe in this statistic. On his official Instagram account, Pelé counts the 1,283 recorded in his career.

The discussion took place because Cristiano Ronaldo reached 807 goals in “matches in official competitions”, which would be a record in football history. Within these same criteria, Pele has 762 goals.

But statistics ignore the characteristics of football between the 1960s and 1970s, in the years in which the Brazilian team forward played for Santos (1956-1974). During much of this period, the team made excursions abroad in which the presence of shirt 10 was a contractual requirement.

Jamie Carragher played as a defender for Liverpool between 1996 and 2013. He is the second most capped player in the club’s history (737) and the most capped player in European tournaments (149). He won the 2005 Champions League and the FA Cup in 2001 and 2006. For the England national team, he played in the 2006 World Cup and the 2004 and 2008 European Championships.