Messi clinches new record, closing in on Pele
Messi is still doing it for Barcelona and yesterday he picked up a strange but nonethless incredible record that one would not expect from Barca's ever-present talisman.
Lionel Messi just keeps on amassing otherworldly records with his consistency which have only so far been matched by his rival Cristiano Ronaldo. The pair are getting close to the incredble record held by the legendary Pele.
The Brazil Pele led his nation to three World Cups, and is the record goalscorer for Santos, with 643 goals in 656 appearances in all competitions but that both Messi and Ronaldo are closing in on that club goal-scoring tally, that too in an era where football has gone through vast changes, just goes on to show how good they have been.
Yesterday against Leganes, Messi changed the game after coming on as a substitute. Messi has scored more goals (22) as a substitute in La Liga than any other player this century. Which is actually very impressive because he is hardly ever on the bench.
With his goal, he now has 577 goals for Barcelona and now needs just 66 more to match Pele. Yesterday’s goal also meant he has now scored 25-plus goals for the 11th consecutive season since 2008-2009. So, given his goal-scoring exploits, it might need Messi two seasons to reach Pele.
Messi's fellow five-time Ballon d'Or winner Ronaldo is 869 days older than the Argentine but he is closer to Pele at this stage, having bagged an insane 589 goals in 789 games.
Only last month, Pele came up with some quite incredible criticism of Messi, claiming that the Argentine cannot use his weaker foot, cannot head the ball and only has one trick to his game.
"How can you make a comparison between a guy who heads the ball well, shoots with the left, shoots with the right and another who only shoots with one leg, only has one skill and doesn't head the ball well?" the former Santos forward told Folha de Sao Paulo, via The Mirror.
"How can you compare? To compare with Pele, it has to be someone who shoots well with the left, shoots well with the right, and scores headers."
Messi had an apt response as his goal yesterday came from a pretty nice and thumping right-foot finish.
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