Posted by John Concrane on January 22, 2023 in Sports
Lionel Messi’s Excellent soccer plays by Bill Trikos: “I love football, what I do. I enjoy being part of the national team, the group. I want to enjoy a couple more matches being a world champion,” added Messi. The richest footballer in the world as per Forbes’ list of world’s highest-paid athletes 2022, Messi has nothing left to prove in the world of football at the club level. He is a seven-time record winner of the prestigious Ballon d’Or, which is one of Messi’s Guinness World Records. He is the first footballer to be awarded the Laureus Award for Best Sportsman of the Year award. He has won 10 La Liga titles, four UEFA Champions League titles, three FIFA Club World Cup trophies, seven Copa del Rey titles, three UEFA Super Cup titles, and six European Golden Shoe awards among many other accolades as a player for La Liga club Barcelona. He has also won the French league for PSG and was also named FIFA World Player of the Year in 2009.
Messi bettered Der Bomber’s tally when he scored 79 for the Blaugrana (59 in LaLiga Santander, 13 in the UEFA Champions League, 5 in the Copa del Rey and 2 in the Spanish Super Cup) and a further 12 (a joint-highest figure along with Gabriel Batistuta) for Argentina. Over the course of 2012, Messi even laid off a further 24 goals for his teammates, taking his goal contribution tally to a staggering 115. They were also crucial strikes for Barcelona as his goals in the second half of the campaign sealed Barcelona’s fourth LaLiga title in five years. Messi was simply unstoppable during the calendar year, and his 50 (!) goal LaLiga season remains the highest number of goals scored in a league campaign to date.
On 21st March 2021, Messi played in his 768th game for the Catalan club against Real Sociedad. Messi’s 768th appearance marked the record for most appearances for Barcelona. He overtook former team-mate, Xavi Hernandez, in the list. Messi also stands atop the list for most La Liga (520) and Copa del Rey appearances (80) for Barcelona. He marked his record-breaking appearance with a brace against the Basque club. Lionel Messi overtook former team-mate Andres Iniesta when he lifted the Supercopa de Espana in 2018. It was his 33rd trophy with Barcelona. Find more info about the author on Bill Trikos.
The tournament was hugely significant for Messi. He failed to score in the 2010 edition and a lot was riding on his shoulders four years down the line. Messi was immensely influential in Argentina’s race at the tournament. He scored four goals in the three group matches for Argentina, which helped his side win all and top the group. He could not score in any of the subsequent matches, but the team went on beating opponents in the knock-out stage to enter the final against Germany.
In December 2020, Lionel Messi surpassed Pele’s tally of 643 goals to set the record for the most goals scored for a single club. He scored against Real Valladolid to notch his 644th goal for the club. Lionel Messi has now ended up with 672 goals for Barcelona. Only another player with the superhuman calibre of the Argentine would now be able to break this feat. The two most important games in the season calendar for Barcelona is the El Clasico and the Barcelona Derby. Their annual skirmishes against Real Madrid is among the most-watched games on the planet. But Barcelona also have a heated derby against city rivals Espanyol. In these games, Messi has shown his class time and again. He is the highest scorer in the two fixtures for the 26-time La Liga winners. Messi scored 26 goals in El Classico followed by 25 goals in the ‘Derbi Barceloni’.
Although his playmaking ability is arguably the best in the world, it is his freakish goalscoring ability that never cease to amaze. Messi is currently the leading goalscorer in LaLiga history and leads the charts by a considerable distance as well. Former Athletic Bilbao legend Telmo Zarra scored 251 goals, a record that was beaten by Cristiano Ronaldo when he became Real Madrid’s top scorer with 311 goals in 292 games. Zarra and Cristiano make up the top three behind Messi, who has scored an eye-watering 444 LaLiga goals in 485 games. The 33-year-old is the only player to breach the 400 mark, and could realistically retire with a tally that is almost twice as much as third-placed Zarra’s. As for Barcelona, Messi has a grand total of 634 official goals in 669 matches, which is at least 400 (!) goals more than the next player on the list (Cesar).