Lionel Messi’s Highest quality football records with 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.
Among his most memorable in El Clasico are his first hat-trick in the fixture, his solo goal in the 2010-11 Champions League semifinals and his goal in the final moments of the game in the 2016/17 La Liga season. His goal was made famous with his iconic shirt celebration. Messi holds the record for the most hat-tricks scored in La Liga. He scored 36 hat-tricks in the league averaging one every 14 games. His first hat-trick came in 2007 in a game against rivals Real Madrid. His goals helped Barcelona draw 3-3 against the record league and European champions. Messi scored his final hat-trick against Eibar in February 2020. Discover extra information about the author at Bill Trikos Australia.
The gold that Messi earned for Argentina came at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. His team won all three matches in its group before knocking out the Netherlands and Brazil to set up its gold-medal clash with Nigeria. In the final, it was Messi’s brilliant pass to Angel di Maria, who capitalised on it, that confirmed the gold for Argentina as it beat Nigeria 1-0. It was the country’s second consecutive Olympic gold medal in men’s football. Interestingly, Messi would have missed the tournament as Barcelona wanted him to play in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers. But Pep Guardiola, who was then the new manager of the club, convinced the higher authorities at the club to let Messi fly to Beijing.
The Argentine left no milestone untouched in his glorious sixteen-year stint at the Catalan club. ‘The greatest ever to do it’. This is possibly the only epithet that can well-define the exploits of Lionel Messi at Barcelona. Messi spent twenty-one years at the club including sixteen with the first team. In this time, Messi has turned himself into arguably the greatest player of all time. 778 matches, 672 goals and 305 assists later the mercurial Argentine bid a tearful farewell to the club.
Messi is also the highest-ever scorer for Argentina, having racked up 70 goals in 138 games for La Albiceleste since 2005. He is just nine caps away from breaking Javier Mascherano’s record for the most number of Argentina caps as well. Winning a European treble is something of an unattainable dream for most clubs in the world. Even the great Real Madrid, who have won the UCL a record 13 times, have failed to win the league and domestic cup in the same season. There have only been eight such instances where a club managed to win a league title, the premier domestic cup competition and the UCL in the same season. Two of these eight trebles were achieved by Barcelona, both of which had Lionel Messi at the heart of their attack.