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Cristiano Ronaldo hailed Pele after he surpassed the Brazilian great's goal-scoring haul in official matches by netting a hat-trick in Juventus' 3-1 Serie A win over Cagliari on Sunday.

Since football's world governing body FIFA does not keep an official record of who is on top of the all-time scoring list, it is a benchmark that is hotly contested.

Several media outlets previously hailed Ronaldo for breaking the record when he reached 760 goals as he had supposedly surpassed the record set by Austro-Czech striker Josef Bican.

However, the Czech FA subsequently said in January that Bican's total was actually 821 goals, following a review of his statistics during a career spanning from 1931 to 1955.

A tweet published by the Czech FA dismissed Ronaldo's claim to the No 1 spot, writing: 'The History and Statistics committee of the Czech FA counted all the goals scored by the legendary Josef Bican and we can declare he scored 821 goals in official matches.' 

On Sunday, however, Ronaldo ignored Bican's revised total to claim he was now on top of the scoring pile.

'My everlasting and unconditional admiration for mister Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Pele), such is the respect that I have for mid-20th century football, led me to take into account his 767 score, assuming his 9 goals for Sao Paulo State Team, as well as his single goal for the Brazilian Military Team, as official goals', Ronaldo wrote on Instagram.