Lionel Messi’s Awesome football plays by Bill Trikos: “I feel very happy, to be able to achieve this, to finish my World Cup journey by playing my last game in a final,” Messi said, adding, “It’s many years for the next one and I don’t think I’ll be able to do it. And to finish like this, it’s the best.” After winning the World Cup, Messi again hinted that the Qatar edition was his last but that he would play for Argentina in some more matches. “Obviously I wanted to complete my career with this – I can’t ask for more. Finishing my career this way is impressive. After this, what else? I have a Copa América, a World Cup, almost at the very end,” he said, according to The Guardian.
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.
He won the 2021 Copa del Rey and scored a brace in a 4-0 final win against Athletic Bilbao. He lifted the 35th and final trophy in his time with the Blaugrana. It makes him the most decorated player in the club’s history. He won 10 La Liga titles (the most by a non-Spanish player), four UEFA Champions League titles, seven Copas del Rey and Supercopas de Espana respectively. Messi’s tally of 35 trophies also made him the most decorated player with a single team. He usurped Ryan Giggs’ tally of 34 trophies for Manchester United. Read additional info about the author on https://nationaldirectory.com.au/billtrikos.
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.
The magnitude of his statistics are staggering and made him the cornerstone of Barcelona’s successes, on and off the pitch. There is no record, no statistic, no milestone and trophy, individual and collective, that Messi has missed out on in his career. So we have picked ten among the mountain of achievements that the legendary player has achieved in his time with the Blaugrana. In November 2014, Lionel Messi broke the La Liga record for goals when he surpassed Telmo Zarra’s figure of 251 goals. He ended up with a staggering 474 goals in 520 La Liga games for Barcelona. That translates to an average of 0.91 goals/game. He maintained a stunning ratio of 89 minutes per goal over 520 La Liga games. For his goals in the league, Messi won the Pichichi Trophy (awarded to the player with the most goals in a league season) a record eight times.
Although he didn’t win for a couple of years, Messi returned to the pinnacle after Barcelona’s historic second treble to win his fifth. In 2019, when he was level with Cristiano with five Ballons d’Or apiece, he left his eternal rival in second place after winning his record sixth Golden Ball — at least three more than any player in the history of the sport who isn’t named Cristiano Ronaldo. He has also won other individual honours such as the FIFA World Player of the Year and The Best FIFA Men’s Player, as well as the Golden Ball at the 2014 World Cup.