There is not much left for Lionel Messi to win in a truly astounding football career in which the Paris Saint-Germain superstar has already won almost every major trophy available to him, including numerous Champions League triumphs with Barcelona and this precious and previously elusive World Cup Winner’s Medal for Argentina.
Indeed, the only competition Messi has competed in and not won in his professional career is the Coupe de France, although he will have to wait until next season for at least that elusive trophy after Marseille’s victory over Paris Saint-Germain on 8 February. prevented him from completing his personal purge.
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However, since his debut for the senior team in 2004, Messi has amassed a truly massive amount of awards and personal bests. And even at the age of 35, he is still approaching a number of important milestones.
Here we take a look at his trophies, his career stats and the impressive amount of records he already holds, as well as a detailed rundown of the major career milestones he has in store, with regular updates as we get closer to each one.
Messi career trophies
Since turning pro 19 years ago, Messi has been accumulating trophies at an absurdly constant rate. In fact, 2013-14 and 2019-20 were the only trophy-free seasons of his career (except for “Pichichi“La Liga top scorer award, which he won in the 2019-20 season).
Argentinean, one of the most titled footballers 40 major awards to his name at club and international level, which leaves him a little shy of former Barça teammate Dani Alves’ record trophy record of 46. Messi’s longtime rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, has 34 trophies under his belt.
messi won more major trophies with Barcelona (35) than any other player in the 123-year history of the Catalan club. That total includes 10 La Liga titles, eight Spanish Super Cups, seven Spanish Cups and four Champions Leagues (including the 2005-2006 season, when the young Messi made six appearances, including starts in both legs of the round of 16 against Chelsea).
Messi added two major club titles during his first season in France (Ligue 1 title and Trophee des Champions) and also scored an international honors hat-trick with Argentina; CONMEBOL-UEFA Champions Cup (also known as The final), the America’s Cup and the World Cup.
Messi records
Messi holds numerous personal bests, befitting his status as one of the greatest players of all time. He has won the Golden Ball as the best player in the world seven timesc, two more than Ronaldo, next on the list. No other player, male or female, has won it more than three times.
Messi is also the only player who has twice became the owner of the Golden Ball of the World Cup.: First when he lost to a finalist in 2014 and again after leading his country to glory in the 2022 tournament.
In addition to being the most decorated player for his former club, Messi is also Barça’s all-time leading scorer (672) and the best player in appearances (778). after his 17 years of collaboration.
He also holds the record for most goals scored by any player in La Liga (474) as good as Most goals scored in a single La Liga season (50) after reaching half a century in 2011-12. Incredibly, Messi also holds the record for Most league assists in a La Liga career (192) and a record for most assists in a single season (21, in 2019/20)thereby proving its exceptional value as a creative force.
The former Barça striker also scored most career hat-tricks in La Liga (36) than any other player, and also shared a record most hat-tricks in a single season (eight in 2011-12) with Ronaldo, who repeated this feat with Real Madrid in the 2014-15 season.
Messi’s unrivaled form in 2012 also saw him set a record as the man with most goals in a single calendar year, scoring 91 times: 79 for Barça, 12 for Argentina.
He is also most frequent scorer in Classical Matches between Barça and Real Madrid with 26 goals in 45 games. Ronaldo is second with 18 goals (in 30 games) along with fellow Real Madrid great Alfredo Di Stefano.
As further evidence of Messi’s longevity and constancy, he made more La Liga appearances than any other foreign-born player (520) while also winning more major league titles in Spain than any other non-Spanish player (10).
While Ronaldo remains the top scorer in the Champions League with 140 goals, Messi still holds the record for most goals. most hat-tricks in competition (eight, on par with Ronaldo). He was first player to score five goals in one Champions League match when he beat Bayer Leverkusen five times in the round of 16 of the 2011/12 season.
Messi is also the Champions League record holder. most goals in the 1/8 finals (29 goals) And most goals scored in the group stage (80), while Ronaldo holds the respective records for play-offs (67), quarter-finals (25), semi-finals (13) and finals (4).
Lionel Messi – record holder most home goals in the Champions League – 78 (Ronaldo holds the record for most away goals with 63). only player in competition history to score against 40 different opponents. He has also scored more goals for one club in the Champions League (120 for Barcelona) than any other player.
And just to add some more icing to an already heavy cake, the Messi series scored in 18 consecutive Champions League seasons between 2005-06 and 2022-2023 is also a competition record.
MILESTONES MESSI
1000 career games (Messi on 1011) REACHED
Messi increased his total senior club and international appearances at the 2022 World Cup by four figures in a round of 16 win over Australia. Naturally, he scored one of the goals in the 2-1 win en route to winning the trophy.
700 club goals (Messi at 700) REACHED
The split between Barcelona (672) and PSG means Messi reached the same milestone as Ronaldo, scoring for Manchester United in a 2-1 win over Everton in October (which turned out to be the last for club).
900 career club caps (Messi – 872)
Messi could see the 900th match of his senior club career on the horizon. The maximum number of matches potentially left on PSG’s schedule this season won’t give him that, but he could achieve that at the start of the 2023-24 campaign.
800 career goals (Messi – 798)
Messi is close to becoming the second player in history (depending on which numbers you use) to reach the 800-goal milestone, after Ronaldo, who lifted his eighth century with a double in Manchester United’s 3-2 win over Arsenal in December 2021.
According to the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), Ronaldo currently holds the world record with 824 official goals for club and country. But other sources differ due to historical inconsistencies in the classification of “official” goals scored in “official” competitions.
For example, Pelé claimed to have scored over 1,000 goals in his career, but due to the unreliability of data collected during his heyday in the 1950s and 60s and what goals are considered to be scored in “official” matches, and not in “friends”. “The Brazilian legend could only score 757 goals.
700 goals without a penalty in a career (Messi – 690)
While many consider his point consistency to be one of the few weak elements in his game, Messi still successfully scored 108 passes from 12 yards for club and country.
20 consecutive years with a senior goal (Messi – 19)
Messi only needs to score once next year (2024) for two decades to have at least one goal scored in every season. Ronaldo is two years older than Messi, and Ronaldo’s hitting streak is 22 consecutive years after he opened his scoring for 2023 with Saudi side Al Nasr.
300 club assists (Messi – 296)
Despite the cavalcade of goals scored over the years, Messi is also a very consistent assistant and thus only a few passes away from a total of 300 goals scored in club competitions, a real achievement before the end of the campaign.
1000 contributions to club goals (Messi about 996)
Just to get a feel for the full nature of his attacking talents, Messi’s total career contributions (i.e. goals plus assists) in club football are close to four figures. Stunning.
500 club league goals (Messi – 492)
Ronaldo was the first of the duo to score 500 club league goals after scoring the 11th goal of his career for Al Nasr against Al Wehd on 10 February. However, Messi is not far behind and is even closer to eclipsing Ronaldo’s 495 goals in Europe’s top five leagues.
50 Champions League play-off goals (Messi – 49)
Messi is close to his half-century goal at the business end of Europe’s top club competition, with only one man ahead of him: Ronaldo holds the record with 67 goals in 80 games between the round of 16 and the final.
100 international caps (Messi – 98)
Messi is already the best player in history (172 games) and scorer (98 goals) for his national team and is close to becoming the first Argentine player to score 100 goals. Far behind Messi, Gabriel Batistuta is second on the list of the best. Albicelestatop scorer with 56 goals in 78 games and the great Diego Maradona is fifth overall with 34 goals in 91 games.
Ronaldo is the man with the most senior international goals of all time with 118 goals for Portugal in 196 games.
Even though both players are closer to 40 than 30, expect them to keep breaking records for a while.
The Sportzshala Statistics and Information Group contributed to this report.
Source: www.espn.com
