Lionel Messi has broken yet another record by becoming the first Spanish footballer to win 500 matches further perpetuating him as football’s GOAT (Greatest Of All Time).
Lionel Messi was able to achieve his record 500th win as Barcelona beat Leganes 5-0 in Thursday’s Copa del Rey match in which he contributed 2 goals to help Barcelona through to the quarter-finals.
Messi was able to win 500 matches whilst in the FC Barcelona colours having started off in their youth squad in 2001 and worked his way up.
… And chalk up another #Messi milestone! Congratulations, Leo! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/5y7tfk6Keo
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) January 30, 2020
Messi has played a total of 710 matches working his way from Barcelona C and Barcelona B from 2003-05. On 24 June 2005 on his 18th Birthday, Lionel Messi signed his first senior contract with Barcelona.
Although Messi has often denied it, there seems to be an unspoken rivalry between him and Cristiano Ronaldo which has kept football fanatics divided as to which of the two is the football great but Messi’s ongoing list of achievement has him currently undeniably rated as football’s GOAT as listed below in comparison to Cristiano Ronaldo:-
1) FIFA Ballon d’Or – Lionel Messi 6 wins Cristiano Ronaldo 5 wins
2) FIFA World’s Best Player – Lionel Messi 6 wins Cristiano Ronaldo 5 wins
3) European Golden Shoes – Lionel Messi 6 wins Cristiano Ronaldo 4 wins
Other lists of accomplishments include:
- Guinness World Record as top goalscorer for club and country in a calendar year: 91 goals in 2012
- Only player to score more than 40 goals in 10 consecutive seasons
- Only player to score in 7 different official competitions in one calendar year: 2015, in La Liga, the Copa del Rey, UEFA Champions League, Copa América, UEFA Super Cup, Spanish Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup, completed on 20 December 2015.
- First player ever to score consecutively against all teams in a professional league
- Most Man of the Match awards won in one FIFA World Cup: 4, in 2014
- Only player to score in his teens, his twenties and his thirties in the history of the World Cup
- Most official goals scored for a single club in Europe: 622 goals
- All-time top scorer in Europe’s top 5 leagues: 433 goals
- Fastest player to reach 100 UEFA Champions League goals (123 games)
- Most goals scored in the UEFA Champions League group stage: 68 goals
- First player to score in 15 consecutive seasons of the UEFA Champions League.
- Youngest player to make 100 appearances in the UEFA Champions League: 28 years, 84 days in 2015
- Youngest player to score 50 goals in the UEFA Champions League.
- Youngest player ever to score 400+ goals for a single European club (27 years and 300 days)
- Argentina aa-time goal scorer.
These are just the icing on the cake of a list of awards and accomplishments by the 32-year-old Spanish footballer Lionel Messi which have contributed to him taking the new title of football’s GOAT.
