• News

3 incredible stats that prove Lionel Messi is out of this world

Lionel Messi, FC Barcelona
Getty Images
Advertisement

Messi has proved yet again he has lost none of his magic by setting three new incredible stats in Barcelona’s latest win.

Lionel Messi was up to his old tricks again on Thursday night.

The 33-year-old continues to prove age is just a number with another exceptional performance to steer Barcelona to an impressive 5-2 win over Getafe in La Liga.

Messi scored twice in the match, assisted Ronald Araujo for the club’s fourth goal, and showed a touch of class by selflessly handing the ball over to Antoine Griezmann for a late penalty.

Had Messi taken that spot-kick and scored, he would’ve bagged a hat-trick and overtaken Cristiano Ronaldo for second place in the European Golden Shoe rankings.

Even so, there was still plenty to marvel about afterward.

23 goals in 2021 already

Despite not playing for Argentina during the international break in March, Lionel Messi has still scored the most goals of any footballer in 2021.

The Barcelona captain has scored 23 goals in as many games across all competitions. 15 of them have come in La Liga alone, with the other eight goals coming in the Copa del Rey and Champions League.

Joins Ronaldo in a special record

Messi’s second goal of the game against Getafe moved him onto 25 goals in La Liga for this term.

The Argentine, therefore, has joined Cristiano Ronaldo in scoring at least a quarter of a century of goals in a top-five European league in 12 consecutive campaigns.

More league goals scored than the Premier League’s 2 highest scorers…COMBINED

According to Transfermarkt, Lionel Messi has now scored a record 469 goals in only 514 La Liga games.

To put this into context, that’s one more goal than the Premier League’s top two leading scorers – Alan Shearer (260) and Wayne Rooney (208) – combined.

x