Lionel Messi, the Barcelona’s maestro, notched his 400th Spanish league goal in Sunday’s game against Eibar to extend his record as La Liga’s all-time top scorer. Those 400 goals have come in 435 matches — an astonishing goal-to-game ratio.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who now plays for Juventus in Italy, is La Liga’s second best scorer with 311 goals in 292 games while Spain’s Telmo Zarra is third with 251 goals in 278 matches.
Barcelona’s posted a tweet on the club’s Twitter account with emojis of a crown and a goat, describing the Argentine as “His goat-ness.”
Messi’s landmark moment came when he notched Barca’s second goal against Eibar at the Camp Nou, with Luis Suarez bagging a brace.
“It would be an astonishing statistic if he were just a goal scorer, but he’s so much more than that. We’re blessed to live in his time,” tweeted former Barcelona striker Gary Lineker.
Messi is the first player to score 400 times in any of Europe’s “big five” leagues and given the Barca star is still only 31 years-old he’s arguably got a reasonable chance of surpassing Josef Bican’s record of 500 goals in the Czech league.
“His numbers are stratospheric, incredible,” said Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde of Messi after the win over Eibar. “He is from another galaxy.”
Messi ranked fifth in the Ballon d’Or vote in 2018, with Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric picking up the coveted award as well as the FIFA men’s best player award for last year.
However, sports scientist Simon Brundish told CNN Sport on Friday that it was ‘insanity” that there’s even a debate as to who is currently the world’s best player.
“There’s only one person. While he’s alive, there’s only Messi, there’s no discussion,” said Brundish.
“If you’re saying anyone else, then Messi has had a broken leg for a year, or he is dead, or you are lying. It can’t be true.
“Messi has currently a goal or assist every 48 minutes. A game typically lasts 95 minutes so that’s almost two every single game. Last season it was 58 minutes.
“Normally you’re doing well if you get a goal every two games.”
Messi has finished as La Liga’s top scorer five times and this season he’s leading the goalscoring table with 17 league goals. Suarez is the second highest scorer with 14 goals.
The Argentine’s first goal for Barca came on May 1 in 2005 against Albacete when he was aged just 17. His 400 goals have included 83 braces and 31 hat-tricks.
Sunday’s win over Eibar kept Barca five points ahead of second-place Atletico Madrid.
(CNN)
