Arthur Friedenreich: More goals than Ronaldo, Pele and Messi?
Arthur Friedenreich: The Real Greatest Goalscorer in Football History?
Football historian Peter Kenny Jones laces up for The Sporting Blog and heads straight towards the top of the pitch with a piece about a striker who is not often included in the ‘GOAT’ debates. But should be.
Much has been made of late of the increasing ‘feud’ that has been ignited regarding all-time goalscorer records.
In the past, the late, great Pelé and his hometown club Santos rebuked that his goal scoring record had been broken.
Santos issued a statement declaring that Pelé scored 1,091 goals for the Brazilian club and he has also updated his Instagram profile to say, “Leading Goal Scorer of All Time (1,283)”.
This public battle over goal-scoring records has been mainly between Pelé, Lionel Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo (or at least their respective clubs and supporters) and Ronaldo now claims the record for the most goals scored in football history…
Taking away the goals scored in friendly games debate, there is perhaps one other much lesser-known name that deserves to be thrown in the ring, Arthur Friedenreich.
The Brazilian striker has been credited as scoring 1,329 goals in his career, a figure that would put him top of the tree and thus make him the greatest goal scorer in the history of the game. But he is never mentioned in the same breath as Brazil’s greatest players.
However, much like the story of Pelé, there is a lot of dispute of whether this figure is correct, and this is perhaps why he isn’t a household name.
Whether the figure is fabricated or not, he was one of the first great Brazilian stars and his career and life deserves attention and further examination.
Who was Arthur Friedenreich?
The man known as The Tiger or The Original "Black" Pearl, was born in São Paulo in 1892 to a German immigrant father and a daughter of a freed slave, mother.
Not only is this a fine footballing hybrid of Brazilian flair and German efficiency but this meant he was of mixed ethnicity.
Because of this, he was faced with many obstacles from the racist persuasions of the football system of the time and in his native Brazil.
“Football was a white-dominated game and he faced opposition whenever he wanted to play.”
However, his German heritage provided him with the platform to perform as his father played with a team of fellow German immigrants.
Following the arrival of Hans Nobiling to Brazil from Germany, he founded a team in honour of his home team SC Germania Hamburg.
Nobiling named the side SC Germânia and they later changed their name to SC Internacional, and they were the third oldest side in Brazilian football.
Friedenreich’s father, Oscar, played for Germania and he was an encouraging father, in that he realised Arthur had a footballing talent.
It is fair to assume that, had his father not been white and had access to professional football in Brazil, Friedenreich may not have had the opportunity to make his professional debut so early.
Nevertheless, he joined SC Germânia as a seventeen-year-old and became the first black player to play professional football in Brazil.
This opportunity to showcase his talents gave him the opportunity to begin a trend that followed his career of hopping from club to club.
In all, he is reported to have had twenty-two different spells at clubs across seven different teams that he jumped between.
El Tigre!
A Career Spent With Many Different Clubs
This is where the issues with accrediting his goal-scoring comes from, his career began at the turn of the 20th century and he retired in 1935.
Due to the poor record-keeping of the time in Brazil, a lot of his appearances and goals have been disputed and derived from word of mouth with no real proof.
This should not mean that his career is forgotten or shunned because there is not as much evidence of his brilliance, he faced enough hardship due to the colour of his skin and overcame this to be a Brazilian hero.
It is certainly not Friedenreich’s fault that administration skills weren’t up to scratch during his career. The fact that the Pelé fan club is still arguing his case today shows that these debates will perhaps never end.
Following making an early impression at SC Germânia he then went on to play for some of Brazil’s greatest clubs, including São Paulo, Flamengo, Ypiranga, Atlético Mineiro, and Paulistano.
He moved his way around the Brazilian leagues from 1910 onwards and made a monumental impact.
It is important to note that a lot of the statistics are not 100% verified and that they should be taken with a pinch of salt, however, one can only work with the statistics that are widely available.
Friedenreich is accredited as being the top goal scorer in 8 of 17 seasons in Brazil, making him the player with the most ‘golden boots’ in Brazilian league football history.
His league performances made him an obvious contender for the Brazilian national side. In fact, he was part of the first-ever Brazilian side that bizarrely faced Exeter City in 1914 in their maiden bout.
This would be a game that would never be forgotten for several reasons for Friedenreich.
Not only did the Brazilians run out as 2-0 victors, but he also lost his two front teeth following a clash with an Exeter player.
This was to be the first of 23 career appearances for the Seleção (Brazilian National Team) in which he scored a respectable 10 goals.
Exeter City Vs Brazil 1914
His club career, as aforementioned, saw a lot of changes and transfers until he found his footballing home in Club Athletico Paulistano where he spent 11 years from 1918.
Here, The Tiger was able to express himself and display his style of play, often being credited as one of the architects of jogo bonito, the phrase akin to ‘The Beautiful Game’.
His exciting and attacking style, combined with a goal-scoring prowess meant that his time with Paulistano was widely regarded as the best of his career for the club where he won 7 league titles.
Friedenreich’s finest moment - The Copa America
Perhaps his crowning footballing moment came for the Brazilian team in 1919 against Uruguay.
Friedenreich scored the winner in the last minute of extra time which secured the Copa America trophy for the Brazilians, for the first time.
This led to nationwide celebrations and Friedenreich’s boot was paraded around the streets of Rio.
It was later put on display by a local jeweller whom Friedenreich wanted to gift his famous boot as he was a loyal supporter of Paulistano.
The Copa America Winning Brazil team of 1919
His national team success was stunted by the Seleção selection committee who decided that no black players could represent the squad from 1921.
Friedenreich then retired from the national team due to their decision and thus his international career was over, despite his 1919 heroics.
He continued with his club football in Brazil up until 1935 when he retired, aged 43, at Flamengo.
Despite being against the Brazilian league turning fully professional, it was perhaps a cruel twist of fate that this was beginning two years before his final game.
Had the game been more professional when he began then his goal-scoring may have been more appreciated today, however, the Pelé debates today suggest the contrary.
Life after football
His football departure meant working in a local off-licence until his retirement.
What followed was a sorry battle with Alzheimer's which saw all his football and working money spent on battling the disease.
This was ultimately in vain and he saw out the final days of his life in a house paid for by São Paulo FC until he passed away in 1969, aged 77.
Friedenreich was a pioneer for black footballers in Brazil.
His ancestry provided him with the opportunity to showcase that black footballers were more than capable of playing with the white ones.
His goal-scoring ability, joy for the game and talent on the ball meant that he was one of the finest players of his generation.
Had he been afforded the opportunity to play in the modern game with access to better statistical recording, fewer racist roadblocks and the financial benefits that come with the game, his life would have been much easier.
Instead, his name will be followed with scrutiny for the inaccuracies of the numbers provided along with his career, something out of his control.
I suspect little mention will be paid to him being the first black footballer in Brazilian league football, winning Brazils’ first Copa America, being banned from the Brazil side for being black and then losing all his money whilst battling Alzheimer’s.
Arthur Friedenreich, The Original "Black" Pearl, is a name that should be remembered as one of the finest Brazilian goal scorers and one of the greatest players of his generation.
Whether or not he did score the reported 1,329 goals in 1,239 games, his legacy should remain, and his name should be etched on the annals of football history.
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