• How did the Brazilian league system work?
• What was Pelé’s record like?
• Was it really the best league back then?

I normally back Pelé, but in this THREAD there are some stats which can’t be ignored:

Pelé had over 1000 goals. Lots of those weren’t official? Okay, okay. But he still had 757 official career goals which is supreme.

Breaking it down, Pelé had 619 goals in 638 league games. On first evaluation, that’s very impressive.

This is where we must learn about the Brazilian football system.

Brazil does have a national division - the Campeonato Brasiliero Série A.

However, it also has the state divisions which are played every year. For Pelé, this was the Campeonato Paulista.

This is different to European football. Nowadays, the national league is the only league in which a top team plays.

Imagine before the Premier League kicks off - there are regional leagues, such as a London league of 18 teams from the capital.

Pelé also played in the Rio São Paulo league - which was a special division contested between teams in both states.

Let’s break down Pele’s stats across these divisions

São Paulo league: 470 in 412

Rio-São Paulo league: 49 in 53

Brazil national league: 100 in 173

So, instantly we can see 470 of Pele’s 757 career goals came in the local state division. 49 more in the two state division.

In the Brazilian national league, he only managed to keep a 0.58 G/G. Much less than the 0.97 that it appears as overall.

To put this into context compared to a European footballer, let’s compare with Ronaldo.

Imagine if Ronaldo played 73% of his league games in a local Madrid state division with 18 teams.

This is what that league would look like, the tier of football they play in is in brackets:

1. Real Madrid (1st)
2. Atlético (1st)
3. Getafe (1st)
4. Leganes (1st)
5. Rayo Vallecano (2nd)
6. Alcorcón (2nd)
7. Fuenlabrada (2nd)
8. Majadahonda (3rd)
9. Internacional (3rd)

10. Las Rozas (3rd)
11. Navalcarnero (4th)
12. Union Adarve (4th)
13. Alcala (4th)
14. Valderas (4th)
15. Mostoles (4th)
16. Pozuelo (4th)
17. Flat Earth (4th)
18. Santa Ana (4th)

The sad thing is, this is worse than it looks. 3rd and 4th does not mean the Spanish equivalent of League 1 & 2.

Tier 3 is 4 groups of 20 teams, and tier 4 is 18 groups of 20 teams. That means teams 8-10 lie in the top 43-123 teams, and teams 11-18 lie in the top 124-484 teams.

Just imagine if Ronaldo got to play in that league for 73% of his matches. Home and away to those 17 teams.

For context, Atlético Madrid’s B team is in a higher position than 11/18 of those teams.

This is the level of competition Pelé faced in the São Paulo state league.

Pelé recieved 15 league “golden boots” in his time. He was the top scorer in:

São Paulo division: 11 in 19 seasons

Rio-São division: 1 in 10 seasons

Brazilian Série A: 3 in 16 seasons

Just imagine finishing as the top scorer in the national league 3 times over 16 seasons.

For context, Messi (who competed against Ronaldo, Suárez & Forlan) has been top scorer 6 times over 14 seasons.

Our next step is to work out how tough the Brazilian national league was.

We’re going to do this by analysing Brazilian teams performance in the Copa Libertadores. The South American UCL equivalent.

During Pelé’s time in the league, the winners were from the following leagues:

Argentina: 9 times
Uruguay: 4 times
Brazil: 2 times

In his 16 years in the Brazilian national league, no team apart from his own had ever won a Libertadores yet he only managed a 0.58 G/G.

It’s like Pelé playing for modern day Bayern but only keeping a 0.58 G/G in the league and only being top scorer 3 times in 16 seasons.

They’re the best analogy as they’ve been succesful in the continent only twice in about 15-20 years and are domestically the strongest side.

This doesn’t make Pelé a fraud, but his numbers are inflated due to state championships and shouldn’t be compared to Messi & Ronaldo.

In the same set up as Pelé - Ronaldo would have genuinely been playing a team called Flat Earth FC twice a season. I’m not even joking.