Pele vs Diego Maradona: Which all-time legend notched more goals and assists?

Diego Maradona and Pele are considered two of the greatest footballers in history – but how do their goals and assists numbers stack up against one another?

The two legends have long set the benchmark for what’s considered to be true greatness in football – standards that contemporary players like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe can only hope to match.

We’ve broken down the numbers behind Pele and Maradona’s mythical football legacies:

Pele’s career stats

Pele’s career was long, long before the days of meticulously compiled stats in your FBrefs and WhoScoreds.

Expected Goals? Forget about it. Pass completion? No chance.

You’ll get goals and appearances if you’re lucky, and even those are up for some fierce debate.

Even Cristiano Ronaldo appeared to make a derisive reference to Pele’s questionable goalscoring numbers by snarking “there will be one difference: all of my goals have videos, so I can prove that” after stating his ambition of reaching 1000 goals.

But how many goals did Pele actually score?

“The most goals scored in a specified period is 1,279 goals by Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Brazil) known as Pele, from 7 Sep 1956 to 1 Oct 1977 in 1,363 games,” says the Guinness World Record, having bestowed the legendary Brazilian forward the honour of the most official goals scored in football history.

“His best year was 1959 with 126, and the Milesimo (1000th) came from a penalty for his club Santos at the Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, on 19 Nov 1969 when playing his 909th first-class match. He later added two more goals in special appearances.”

Ronaldo can forget about ever eclipsing that tally, but according to other sources he’s already overtaken Pele’s official numbers.

Zurich-based company The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) state that Pele officially notched 762 goals in his career between 1957 and 1977 – 679 for clubs (604 in league competitions, 49 in cups and 26 in continental competitions) and 84 for the Brazilian national team.

The IFFHS place Pele third in football’s all-time scoring charts, behind only Messi and Ronaldo.

However, another reputable historical football statistics company – the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) – comes to a different number – 778 goals officially scored in 851 career appearances.

The RSSSF believe Pele stands 11th in football’s all-time top scorers, behind his compatriot Romario and the likes of Ferenc Puskas and more obscure, historical names you may not have come across before.

And what about assists?

As you can imagine, things get even more muddy when it comes to counting Pele’s career assists – but attempts have been made.

Twitter user @avisualgame, using data compiled by @Trachta10, put together a nifty comparison chart that states Pele notched 367 assists in 795 official career matches.

We repeat that the numbers are up for debate, so take them with a pinch of salt, but on this methodology the Brazilian icon stands above any player in football history in terms of goal contributions per 90 minutes.

Pelé played 795 full games worth of minutes across official games in his career, scoring 756 goals, and racking up 367 assists, a rate of 1.41 per 90.

Here’s how it compares to some other all-time great attackers. pic.twitter.com/3N5ttJhoNn

— VisualGame (@avisualgame) December 29, 2022

Diego Maradona’s career stats

El Diego’s place in the pantheon of football’s all-time greats is less based around the raw numbers.

You’ll be sorely disappointed if you’re looking for goals and assists numbers anywhere near as prolific as Pele, Messi or Ronaldo.

Maradona is largely talked about in mythical terms thanks to the god-like peaks he reached for Argentina – particularly at the Mexico ’86 World Cup – and for the talismanic role he played in Napoli’s unforgettable Scudetto title victories of 1986-87 and 1989-90.

Talk to anyone who watched Maradona in his pomp and there’s a good chance they’ll swear to you they’ve never seen a more talented footballer.

But what about Maradona’s stats?

While not quite in the same ballpark as Pele or Messi, having not quite enjoyed the longevity of either, they’re still pretty extraordinary.

Having first emerged as a 16-year-old in the mid-70s when Pele was winding down his career out in the United States, data is a bit more readily available for the Argentinian.

Maradona scored 116 goals in 166 Argentine Primera Division appearances for boyhood club Argentinos Juniors before notching 28 in 40 in his first stint with Boca Juniors.

He then scored 38 goals in 58 appearances before Barcelona, going on to score 115 in 259 games in all competitions during his unforgettable seven-season spell at Napoli.

Latterly he officially scored 14 goals in 66 appearances as he wound down his playing days at Sevilla, Newell’s Old Boys and a second stint with Boca.

He also scored 34 goals in 91 matches on the international stage with Argentina.

In total that amounts to 345 career goals at senior level in 680 appearances for club and country.

Historical stats collator @Trachta10 differs marginally on the total number of goals – one fewer, 344 (88 penalties, 59 free-kicks, and 24 headers) – as well as 206 assists.

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