Lionel Messi
World football was taken aback on Tuesday evening when Lionel Messi dropped a bombshell on his Barcelona future. After an association of nearly two decades, the Argentine talisman has informed the Spanish giants that he intends to leave the club. And as the speculation over his next club begins to take shape and Barcelona attempting to every bit in their hands to stop the legend, we bring you some of the extraordinary numbers from Messi's glorious career at Camp Nou.
634 goals scored by Messi for Barcelona across all competitions since his debut in 2004, which is almost 400 goals more than second-placed César Rodríguez, who scored 232 goals for the club between 1942 and 1955. What makes the tally even more ridiculous is that if you add up the number of goals scored by the next three top-scorers - César, Luis Suarez (198), and László Kubala (194) - you will still fall 10 goals short of Messi's tally.
444 goals of Messi's career tally for Barcelona were scored in La Liga matches, which is the most for a player in the history of the league. The second-best on the list is Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored 311 goals for Real Madrid's. Messi's goal ratio of 0.92 in La Liga is however second-best behind Ronaldo's 1.07.
7 times Messi ended a La Liga season as the top-scorer, the most by a player in the history of the league, surpassing former Spanish footballer and Bilbao legend, Telmo Zarra who finished six times as the lead goal-scorer. Messi achieved the feat in 2009/10 (34 goals), 2011/12 (40 goals), 2012/13 (50 goals), 2016/17 (37 goals), 2017/18 (34 goals), 2018/109 (36 goals), 2019/20 (25 goals).
40 goals in 10 consecutive seasons is a feat no other player has achieved barring Messi, which stretches between 2009/10 season to the end of 2018/19. 523 career goals were scored during his period at an average of 52 goals per season.
50 goals were scored by Messi in 2011/12 La Liga season which is the most by any player in a single season in the history of the league.
73 goals were struck by the Barca talisman in the same season which is the most number of goals scored by a player in a single season in Europe's top 5 leagues across competitions. The previous record was 67 goals, held by Gerd Muller for Bayern Munich in 1972/73.
91 goals were the ultimate tally for Messi in the calendar of 2012 combining goals for both club and country. That's a goal per 68 minutes. And hence a Guinness Record - for the most goals scored in a single calendar year in official competitions.
19 There is a reason why the 2011/12 season was Messi's best ever in terms of goal-scoring rate. Another record that he added to his name that season was that the Argentine became the only player to score consecutively against all the teams in a single league - 30 goals scored in 19 games.
21 Messi also holds the record of scoring in most consecutive league appearances, striking 33 goals in 21 straight games in the 2012/13 season.
13 In the same season, he recorded the feat of most consecutive away league matches scored in, finding the net 20 times in 13 appearances.
36 La Liga hat-tricks have been scored by Messi, another league record. He is tied with Ronaldo most number of hat-tricks in a season (8) and for the most number of Champions League hat-tricks (8, again).
26 of his career goals came in El Clasico matches, which is the most by a player in the history of the rivalry and eight more than second-placed Alfredo di Stefano and Ronaldo.
183 Messi also holds the record for the most assists by a player in La Liga history. His former teammate Xavi stands record with 128 assists.
34 titles have been won by Messi at Barcelona which includes 10 La Liga titles, 6 Copa del Rey, 7 Supercopa, 4 Champions League titles, three Super Cups, and three Club World Cups.
6 times Messi has been awarded the European Golden Shoe. No one else has more than four.
6 times Messi won the Ballon d'Or, the most by a player, all won in space of 10 years. Ronaldo stands second on the list with 5.
