There is not a lot left for Lionel Messi to win in a very astounding soccer profession that has already seen the Paris Saint Germain celebrity declare nearly each main trophy accessible to him, together with a number of Champions League triumphs with Barcelona and that treasured and beforehand elusive World Cup winner’s medal for Argentina.
Certainly, the one competitors that Messi has performed in and never gained throughout his skilled profession is the French Cupthough he’ll have to attend till subsequent season a minimum of for that elusive piece of silverware after Marseille‘s win over PSG on Feb. 8 stopped him completing his personal clean sweep.
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Nevertheless, since making his senior debut in 2004, Messi has collected a very huge variety of honours and particular person information. And, even on the age of 35, he is nonetheless closing in on an array of serious landmark achievements.
Right here we check out his trophy haul, his profession stats and the spectacular array of information he already holds, in addition to a complete rundown of the most important profession milestones he has in his sights with common updates as he nears every of them.
Messi’s profession trophies
Since turning professional 19 years in the past, Messi has been stockpiling trophies at an absurdly constant price. In truth, 2013-14 and 2019-20 have been the one trophyless seasons of his profession (except you rely the “Pichichi” award as LaLiga’s prime objective scorer that he gained in 2019-20).
One of the vital embellished gamers in soccer, the Argentine has 40 main honours to his identify at membership and worldwide stage, which leaves him simply shy of former Barca teammate Dani Alves‘ report haul of 46. Messi’s longtime rival, Cristiano Ronaldo has 34 trophies underneath his belt.
Messi has gained extra main trophies with Barcelona (35) than another participant within the Catalan membership’s 123-year historical past. That whole consists of 10 LaLiga titles, eight Spanish Supercopas, seven Copa del Reys and 4 Champions Leagues (together with 2005-06, when the teenaged Messi made six appearances together with begins in each legs of the round-of-16 win over Chelsea.)
Messi added two main membership titles throughout his maiden season in France (the Ligue 1 title and the Trophee des Champions) in addition to a hat trick of worldwide honours with Argentina; the CONMEBOL-UEFA Cup of Champions (also referred to as the Remaining), the Copa America and the FIFA World Cup.
Data held by Messi
Messi holds many particular person information, befitting his standing as one of many best of all time. He has gained the Ballon d’Or for being the world’s greatest participant seven times, two greater than Ronaldo, who’s subsequent on the record. No different participant, male or feminine, has gained it greater than 3 times.
Messi is also the one participant to have gained the FIFA World Cup Golden Ball award twice: first when he was a shedding finalist in 2014, and once more after main his nation to glory on the 2022 event.
In addition to being his former membership’s most embellished participant, Messi can also be Barca’s all-time prime objective scorer (672) and appearance-maker (778) following his 17-year affiliation.
He additionally holds the report for most whole objectives scored by any participant in LaLiga (474) in addition to the most objectives scored in a single LaLiga season (50) after reaching a half-century in 2011-12. Unbelievably, Messi additionally holds the report for most profession league assists in LaLiga (192) and the report for the most assists made in a single season (21, in 2019-20)thus proving his extraordinary worth as a artistic pressure.
The previous Barca ahead additionally has scored extra profession hat tips in LaLiga (36) than another participant, in addition to sharing the report for the most hat tips in a single season (eight, in 2011-12) with Ronaldo, who matched the feat with Real Madrid in 2014-15.
Messi’s untouchable type in 2012 additionally noticed him set a report as the person with most objectives in single calendar 12 months by scoring 91 instances: 79 for Barca, 12 for Argentina.
He is also the most frequent scorer in The traditional matches between Barca and Actual Madrid with 26 objectives in 45 video games. Ronaldo is joint-second on 18 objectives (in 30 video games,) alongside fellow Madrid nice Alfredo Di Stefano.
As additional testomony to Messi’s longevity and consistency, he has made extra LaLiga appearances than another foreign-born participant (520) whereas additionally having gained extra top-flight league titles in Spain than another non-Spanish-born participant (10).
Whereas Ronaldo stays the Champions League’s all-time prime scorer with 140 objectives, Messi nonetheless collectively holds the report for most hat tips scored within the competitors (eight, stage with Ronaldo). He was the first participant ever to attain 5 objectives in a single Champions League match when he smashed a quintuple previous Bayer Leverkusen within the 2011-12 spherical of 16.
Messi additionally holds the Champions League information for most whole objectives within the spherical of 16 (29 objectives) and the most objectives scored within the group stage (80), whereas Ronaldo holds the corresponding information for the knockout section total (67), the quarterfinals (25), the semifinals (13) and the ultimate (4).
Lionel Messi holds the report for most house objectives scored within the Champions League with 78 (Ronaldo holds the report for away objectives with 63), whereas additionally being the solely participant in competitors historical past to have scored against 40 different opponents. He additionally has scored extra objectives for one membership within the Champions League (120 for Barcelona) than another participant.
And simply so as to add just a little extra icing to an already top-heavy cake, Messi’s run of scoring in 18 consecutive Champions League seasons between 2005-06 and 2022-23 can also be a contest report.
MESSI’S MILESTONES
1,000 profession video games (Messi on 1,011) ACHIEVED
Messi took his whole of senior matches performed for membership and nation into 4 figures on the 2022 World Cup, within the round-of-16 win over Australia. Naturally, he scored one of many objectives in the 2-1 win en path to lifting the trophy.
900 profession membership video games (Messi on 871)
Messi can see the 900th look of his senior membership profession on the horizon. The utmost variety of matches doubtlessly remaining in PSG’s schedule this season will not get him there, however he may attain it in the course of the early a part of the 2023-24 marketing campaign.
800 profession objectives (Messi on 797)
Messi is near changing into solely the second participant ever (relying on who’s numbers you employ) to succeed in the 800-goal milestone, following within the wake of Cristiano Ronaldo, who introduced up his eighth century with a brace in Manchester United‘s 3-2 victory over Arsenal in December 2021.
So far as the Worldwide Federation of Soccer Historical past and Statistics (IFFHS) is anxious, Ronaldo is presently the world-record holder with 824 official objectives for membership and nation. However different sources differ as a result of historic inconsistencies within the classification of “official” objectives scored in “official” competitions.
For instance, Pele claimed to have scored properly over 1,000 objectives throughout his profession however due to the unreliability of the info collected throughout his heyday within the Fifties and 60s, and which objectives rely as being scored in “official” matches versus “friendlies,” the Brazil legend’s tally could possibly be as little as 757 objectives.
700 profession non-penalty objectives (Messi on 689)
Whereas many contemplate his consistency from the spot to be one of many few weak components to his sport, Messi has nonetheless efficiently transformed 108 instances from 12 yards for membership and nation.
20 consecutive years with a senior objective (Messi on 19)
Messi wants to search out the web simply as soon as subsequent 12 months (2024) to make it two full a long time with a minimum of one objective registered each season therein. Two years Messi’s senior, Ronaldo’s scoring streak stands at 22 consecutive years now that he has opened his account for 2023 with Saudi facet Al Nasser.
700 membership objectives (Messi on 699)
Messi whole — break up between Barcelona (672) and PSG means he’ll imminently attain the identical milestone as Ronaldo did with a goal for Manchester United in a 2-1 win against Everton in October (which proved to be his final for the membership.)
300 membership assists (Messi on 294)
For all of the cavalcade of objectives scored by way of the years, Messi can also be a extremely constant assister and as such is just some through-balls away from reaching a complete of 300 in membership competitors, a sensible achievement earlier than the top of the marketing campaign.
1,000 membership objective contributions (Messi on 993)
Simply to hammer house the whole nature of his attacking skills, Messi’s whole profession objective contributions (i.e. objectives plus assists) in membership soccer is near 4 figures. Staggering.
500 membership league objectives (Messi on 491)
Ronaldo was the primary of the duo to move 500 objectives in membership league video games after scoring the 11th four-goal haul of his career for Al Nassr towards Al Wehda on Feb. 10. Nevertheless, Messi is just not far behind, and is even nearer to eclipsing Ronaldo’s whole of 495 objectives in Europe’s prime 5 leagues.
50 objectives in Champions League knockout section (Messi on 49)
Messi is near his half-century of objectives on the enterprise finish of Europe’s prime membership competitors, with just one man forward of him: Ronaldo holds the report with 67 objectives in 80 video games between the spherical of 16 and the ultimate.
100 senior worldwide objectives (Messi on 98)
Already the all-time prime appearance-maker (172 video games) and objective scorer (98 objectives) for his nationwide crew, Messi is near changing into the primary Argentina participant to attain 100 objectives. Trailing Messi by a substantial distance, Gabriel Batistuta is second on the record of the Albiceleste‘s highest scorers with 56 objectives in 78 video games, whereas the good Diego Maradona is fifth total with 34 objectives in 91 video games.
Ronaldo is the person with probably the most objectives scored in senior internationals of all time, with 118 for Portugal in 196 video games.
Regardless of each gamers being nearer to 40 years of age than they’re to 30, anticipate them to maintain writing information for some time but.
ESPN’s Stats & Info Group contributed to this report
