Lionel Messi is one of the greatest football players of all time. He has set multiple records during his illustrious career. Many of them may never be touched.
Cristiano Ronaldo is his only rival that has had similar success. With that aside, join me in reviewing the records made by Messi.
Messi has scored eight Champions League hat-tricks. This record has the most potential to be broken, but that doesn’t mean it’s not an incredible accomplishment. Ronaldo is just one hat-trick behind with seven in the Champions League. Other names close to the record are Robert Lewandowski and Karim Benzema.
Messi has 160 caps for Argentina. Javier Mascherano held the previous record until it was broken in 2021. This is an insane number for someone who is far from retirement.
Messi is the highest goal scorer in Europe’s top leagues. He has a trophy cabinet full of Golden Boots. His six Golden Boots were won when he played for FC Barcelona. He won this award across two separate three-peats.
He has won 36 club-level trophies. He even won the Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain in his first season in the league.
He has scored 672 goals for FC Barcelona. This record may last forever because it’s hard to imagine anyone coming close to scoring over 600 goals for a single club.
Aside from being the player with the most hat-tricks in the UEFA Champions League, he also has 36 hat-tricks in La Liga.
He set a record in Spain by scoring 26 goals in El Clasico, one of the most prestigious La Liga events. For reference, Ronaldo has only scored 18 El Clasico goals.
In 2012, Messi was nine goals away from scoring 100. He scored 91 goals in 365 days. The former record holder was Gerd Muller. In 1972, he scored 85 goals.
Messi has scored 474 goals in La Liga. The previous record holder was Alan Shearer, who scored 260 goals in the English Premier League.
Even when Ronaldo came to La Liga, Messi was still scoring more goals. Messi scored 50 goals in the 2011–12 La Liga season. Ronaldo attempted to break the record in the 2014-15 season, but he only scored 48 goals.
Messi played alongside key midfielders like Xavi and Andres Iniesta. He was able to outclass Xavi. Xavi retired with a record of 129 assists while Messi holds a record of 192 assists.
Messi has received seven Ballon d’Or awards. He won six of them while playing for FC Barcelona. He won his seventh Ballon d’Or while playing for Paris Saint-Germain.
Messi has scored 76 Champions League group stage goals. Ronaldo is in second place with 73 goals in the group stage. Benzema and Lewandowski are both in third place with 56 goals.