Messi milestone tracker: 800 goals for Argentina, Barca, PSG

There isn’t much left for Lionel Messi to win in a truly astounding football career that will now see the superstar take his talents to Inter Miami after announcing on June 7 that he is joining the MLS club.

Messi played his last game for Paris Saint-Germain on June 3 and can claim just about every major trophy available to him, including three Champions League triumphs with Barcelona and that precious and a previously elusive World Cup for Argentina.

Indeed, the only competition that Messi has played in and not won during his professional career is the Coupe de France after Marseille eliminated PSG in February that stopped him completing his personal clean sweep.

However, since making his senior debut in 2004, Messi has accumulated a truly vast number of honours and individual records. And, even at the age of 35, he’s still closing in on an array of significant landmark achievements. And now he’ll have a shot at silverware from any entirely different league once he suits up for Miami.

Here we take a look at his trophy haul, his senior career stats and the impressive array of records he already holds, as well as a comprehensive rundown of the major career milestones he has in his sights with regular updates as he nears each of them.

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Messi’s career trophies

Since turning pro 19 years ago, Messi has been stockpiling trophies at an absurdly consistent rate. In fact, 2013-14 and 2019-20 were the only trophyless seasons of his career (unless you count the “Pichichi” award as LaLiga’s top goal scorer that he won in 2019-20).

One of the most decorated players in football, the Argentine has 43 major honours to his name at club and international level, which leaves him just shy of former Barca teammate Dani Alves’ record haul of 46. Messi’s longtime rival, Cristiano Ronaldo has 34 trophies under his belt.

Messi has won more major trophies with Barcelona (35) than any other player in the Catalan club’s 123-year history. That total includes 10 LaLiga titles, eight Spanish Supercopas, seven Copa del Reys and four Champions Leagues (including 2005-06, when the teenaged Messi made six appearances including starts in both legs of the round-of-16 win over Chelsea.)

Messi added two major club titles during his maiden season in France (the Ligue 1 title and the Trophee des Champions), and he won the Ligue 1 title again for the 2022-23 season. He also won a hat trick of international honours with Argentina: the 2022 CONMEBOL-UEFA Cup of Champions (also known as the Finalissima), the 2021 Copa America and the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Records held by Messi

Messi holds many individual records, befitting his status as one of the greatest of all time. He has won the Ballon d’Or for being the world’s best player seven times, two more than Ronaldo, who is next on the list. No other player, male or female, has won it more than three times.

Messi also is the only player to have won the FIFA World Cup Golden Ball award twice: first when he was a losing finalist in 2014, and again after leading his country to glory at the 2022 tournament.

As well as being his former club’s most decorated player, Messi is also Barca’s all-time top goal scorer (672) and appearance-maker (778) following his 17-year association.

He also holds the record for most total goals scored by any player in LaLiga (474) as well as the most goals scored in a single LaLiga season (50) after reaching a half-century in 2011-12. Unbelievably, Messi also holds the record for most career league assists in LaLiga (192) and the record for the most assists made in a single season (21, in 2019-20), thus proving his extraordinary value as a creative force.

The former Barca forward also has scored more career hat tricks in LaLiga (36) than any other player, as well as sharing the record for the most hat tricks in a single season (eight, in 2011-12) with Ronaldo, who matched the feat with Real Madrid in 2014-15.

Messi’s untouchable form in 2012 also saw him set a record as the man with most goals in single calendar year by scoring 91 times: 79 for Barca, 12 for Argentina.

He also is the most frequent scorer in El Clasico matches between Barca and Real Madrid with 26 goals in 45 games. Ronaldo is joint-second on 18 goals (in 30 games,) alongside fellow Madrid great Alfredo Di Stefano.

As further testament to Messi’s longevity and consistency, he has made more LaLiga appearances than any other foreign-born player (520) while also having won more top-flight league titles in Spain than any other non-Spanish-born player (10).

While Ronaldo remains the Champions League’s all-time top scorer with 140 goals, Messi still jointly holds the record for most hat tricks scored in the competition (eight, level with Ronaldo). He was the first player ever to score five goals in a single Champions League match when he smashed a quintuple past Bayer Leverkusen in the 2011-12 round of 16.

Messi also holds the Champions League records for most total goals in the round of 16 (29 goals) and the most goals scored in the group stage (80), while Ronaldo holds the corresponding records for the knockout phase overall (67), the quarterfinals (25), the semifinals (13) and the final (4).

Lionel Messi holds the record for most home goals scored in the Champions League with 78 (Ronaldo holds the record for away goals with 63), while also being the only player in competition history to have scored against 40 different opponents. He also has scored more goals for one club in the Champions League (120 for Barcelona) than any other player.

And just to add a little more icing to an already top-heavy cake, Messi’s run of scoring in 18 consecutive Champions League seasons between 2005-06 and 2022-23 is also a competition record.

Messi surpassed rival Cristiano Ronaldo in another category to finish the 2022-23 season by scoring the most goals in Europe’s top five leagues. Messi scored his 496th career goal for PSG on May 27, 2023, breaking Ronaldo’s record in the process.

MESSI’S MILESTONES

1,000 career games (Messi on 1,038) ACHIEVED

Messi took his total of senior matches played for club and country into four figures at the 2022 World Cup, in the round-of-16 win over Australia. Naturally, he scored one of the goals in the 2-1 win en route to lifting the trophy.

800 career goals (Messi on 807) ACHIEVED

Messi has become second player ever (depending on who’s numbers you use) to reach the 800-goal milestone, following in the wake of Ronaldo, who brought up his eighth century with a brace in Manchester United’s 3-2 victory over Arsenal in December 2021.

Messi reached the milestone in Argentina’s 2-0 win over Panama in a March 23 friendly in Buenos Aires, the first game back for the Albiceleste following their triumph in Qatar.

As far as the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) is concerned, Ronaldo is the world-record holder with 830 official senior goals for club and country. But other sources differ due to historical inconsistencies in the classification of “official” goals scored in “official” competitions.

For example, Pele claimed to have scored well over 1,000 goals during his career but because of the unreliability of the data collected during his heyday in the 1950s and 60s, and which goals count as being scored in “official” matches as opposed to “friendlies,” the Brazil legend’s tally could be as low as 757 goals.

700 club goals (Messi on 704) ACHIEVED

Split between Barcelona (672) and PSG (32) means Messi has reached the same milestone as Ronaldo did with Manchester United in a 2-1 win against Everton in October (which proved to be Ronaldo’s last for the club).

Messi scored his 700th goal in a 3-0 win for PSG at Marseille on Feb. 26, 2023.

300 club assists (Messi on 303) ACHIEVED

For all the cavalcade of goals scored through the years, Messi is also one of the world’s most creative players. He registered his 300th career assist in club football, almost inevitably, for Kylian Mbappe during the 2-1 win at Auxerre on May 21.

1,000 club goal contributions (Messi on 1,007) ACHIEVED

Just to hammer home the complete nature of his attacking talents, Messi’s total career goal contributions (i.e. goals plus assists) in club football is more than four figures. Staggering.

100 senior international goals (Messi on 103) ACHIEVED

Already the all-time top appearance-maker (174 games) for his national team, Messi is the first Argentina player to surpass the 100-goal mark. He achieved the century mark in a friendly match against Curaçao on March 28. In fact, he did in style by notching a hat trick in the 7-0 win.

Trailing Messi by a considerable distance, Gabriel Batistuta is second on the list of the Albiceleste‘s highest scorers with 56 goals in 78 games, while the great Diego Maradona is fifth overall with 34 goals in 91 games.

Messi is also the first South American male player to hit the 100-goal mark and second South American overall behind Brazil’s Marta, who has 109 for her country.

Ronaldo is the man with the most goals scored in senior internationals of all time, having found the back of the net 122 times for Portugal. And with 198 appearances for Os Navegadores, Ronaldo became the most capped men’s player in international football against Liechtenstein in a Euro 2024 qualifying match on March 23.

Despite both players being closer to 40 years of age than they are to 30, expect them to keep writing records for a while yet.

900 career club games (Messi on 863)

Messi can see the 900th appearance of his senior club career on the horizon. He could reach it in the 2024 season with Miami.

700 career non-penalty goals (Messi on 699)

While many consider his consistency from the spot to be one of the few weak elements to his game, Messi has still successfully converted 108 times from 12 yards for club and country.

20 consecutive years with a senior goal (Messi on 19)

Messi needs to find the net just once next year (2024) to make it two full decades with at least one goal registered each and every season therein. Two years Messi’s senior, Ronaldo’s scoring streak stands at 22 consecutive years now that he has opened his account for 2023 with Saudi side Al Nassr.

500 club league goals (Messi on 496)

Ronaldo was the first of the duo to pass 500 goals in club league games after scoring the 11th four-goal haul of his career for Al Nassr against Al Wehda on Feb. 10. However, Messi is not far behind. He surpassed Ronaldo’s total of 495 goals in Europe’s top five leagues and will reach this particular milestone in Miami.