Pe de Ouro

                                         Friedenreich with the Brazil team 1925

Arthur Friedenreich had a phenomenal goal scoring record. It is possible that he was the most prolific scorer in the history of the game.

Let's look at the statistics (or the reputed statistics) associated with Fried:

It has been traditionally asserted that he scored 1239 goals in 1329 games. This figure was supposedly the outcome of a contemporary record which was the work of 2 people; Friedenreich's father and his Paulistano team mate Mário de Andrade e Silva.  If we accept that Fried's career lasted from 1909 (when he was 17) until 1935 1329  games would equate to a shade over 49 games a season.  The scoring rate is 0.93 goals per game.

When Andrade died the records that he and Friedenreich Senior had kept were lost.

A journalist named De Vanney firstly accepted these figures as being accurate and then inexplicably reversed them to promote the claim that Fried had scored 1329 goals in 1239 games. This would have represented a strike rate of 1.07 goals per game.

Other figures (based on analysis of contemporary reports) have been 554 goals in 561 games (Alexandre da Costa) and 558 goals in 562 games (Severino Filho).

A detailed season by season record that appears on RSSSF Brazil gives figures of 557 goals in 562 games (acknowledging the absence of reliable records for a number of matches). This gives a strike rate of 0.99 goals per game. 

Looking at this apparently comprehensive record of the matches that Friedenreich played in during his adult life it is hard to imagine where the 767 unrecorded matches (and 682 goals) could have come? There have been suggestions that Andrade might have included scratch matches and Torneio Início Paulista (in which teams would play a number of matches of 20 minutes in one day). Even if this was the case the defecit of 30 matches a season (spread over his entire career) seems excessive. 
I am inclined to believe the RSSSF Brazil figures which whilst not accounting for the 1000+ goals that others claim for Fried, are very impressive indeed:

Year	Team	Matches	Goals
1909	Germânia	1	*
1910	Ypiranga	2	*
1911	Germânia	13	6*
1912	Mackenzie	11	15	Liga Paulista top scorer
	Seleção Brasileira	1	2
	Combinado Paulista	2
	Combinado Brasileiro	2	1*
1913	Ypiranga	8	5
	Americano	5
	Combinado Brasileiro	2	1
	Seleção Paulista	1
	Paulista	1	*
1914	Paulista	2
	Atlas	1	1
	Ypiranga	12	16	Liga Paulista top scorer
	Seleção Paulista	5	3
	Ypiranga/Paulistano	1	2
	São Bento/Ypiranga	1	2
	Seleção Brasileira	4	1
1915	Seleção Paulista	2	2
	Ypiranga	12	7
	Paysandu	3	*
1916	Paysandu	6	4*
	Seleção Paulista	2	3
	Paulistano	2
	Seleção Brasileira	4	1
1917	Ypiranga	6	14	Liga Paulista top scorer
	Flamengo	1
	Paulistano	6	1*
	Seleção Paulista	4	8
	Seleção Brasileira	1	1
1918	Paulistano	15	25	Liga Paulista top scorer
	Seleção Paulista	8	14
	Seleção Brasileira	1
1919	Paulistano	21	28	Liga Paulista top scorer
	Seleção Paulista	1	2
	Seleção Brasileira	4	4	Campeonato Sul-Americano top scorer
1920	Seleção Paulista	1	3
	Tutu/Miranda	1	1
	Paulistano	20	37
1921	Paulistano	22	35	Liga Paulista top scorer
	Bela Vista/Consolação	1	1
1922	Seleção Paulista	5	9
	Paulistano	20	20
	Seleção Brasileira	2	0
1923	Seleção Paulista	3	2
	Paulistano	17	17
	Paulistano/Palestra	1	2
	Paulistano/Flamengo	1
1924	Paulistano	24	26
1925	Paulistano	23	17
	Seleção Paulista	2	3
	Seleção Brasileira	4	2
1926	Paulistano	23	14*
	Seleção Paulista	3	1
1927	Paulistano	15	17	Liga Paulista top scorer
	Combinado De Brancos	2	2
1928	Seleção Paulista	2	4
	Combinado Jacaré	1	*
	Paulistano	23	32	Liga Paulista top scorer
	Combinado De Brancos	1
1929	Paulistano	24	20	Liga Paulista top scorer
	Seleção Paulista	7	6
	Internacional	1	1
	Atlëtico Santista	1	1
1930	Santos	1
	São Paulo	31	32
	Seleção Paulista	3	3
	São Paulo/Palestra	2	3
	Mackenzie Alumni	1
	Seleção Brasileira	1	1
1931	São Paulo	26	33
	Seleção Paulista	9	9
1932	São Paulo	18	8*
1933	São Paulo	17	4*
	Dois De Julho	1	1
1934	São Paulo	26	14
	São Paulo/Santos	1	1
1935	São Paulo	6	3
	Santos	5	1