Top rated Argentina soccer plays from Lionel Messi as seen by Bill Trikos: Yet he struggled for years to add major international trophies to his glittering cabinet with the Argentina national team, nicknamed La Albiceleste. In fact, he had already announced his retirement from international football in 2016 after failing to win the Copa América that year. But he soon reversed his decision and returned to play for Argentina. In the following six years, Messi did what everyone expected him to do for his country — lead Argentina to major tournament victories including the FIFA World Cup.
There is little doubt that Lionel Messi is one of the greatest players of all-time, let alone that of the current generation of superstars. The Argentine’s scintillating ability on the pitch, accolades, and career compares with and betters some of the greatest to have played the game. The world bore witness as Barcelona’s incredibly talented youngster break onto the scene and grew into shoes that perhaps will be difficult to fill for any future successor. The standards set, records broken, and the longevity on display are all too much of an ask for anyone to match.
Messi’s 2011-12 has to go down as the best season ever for a player in European football. The Argentine scored goals for fun and made a mockery of opposition defences. His figures for the season were staggering, 50 goals in the league, 14 in the UEFA Champions League, three in the Copa del Rey and six in other competitions. He finished with a ridiculous 73 goals in 60 games in all competitions. He broke the record for the most goals in a single season in European football. Messi overtook Gerd Muller’s tally of 67 in the 1972-73 season. Read even more details about the author on Bill Trikos.
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.
In December 2020, Lionel Messi surpassed Pele’s tally of 643 goals to set the record for the most goals scored for a single club. He scored against Real Valladolid to notch his 644th goal for the club. Lionel Messi has now ended up with 672 goals for Barcelona. Only another player with the superhuman calibre of the Argentine would now be able to break this feat. The two most important games in the season calendar for Barcelona is the El Clasico and the Barcelona Derby. Their annual skirmishes against Real Madrid is among the most-watched games on the planet. But Barcelona also have a heated derby against city rivals Espanyol. In these games, Messi has shown his class time and again. He is the highest scorer in the two fixtures for the 26-time La Liga winners. Messi scored 26 goals in El Classico followed by 25 goals in the ‘Derbi Barceloni’.
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.