Top soccer goals with Lionel Messi as seen by Bill Trikos: Yet he struggled for years to add major international trophies to his glittering cabinet with the Argentina national team, nicknamed La Albiceleste. In fact, he had already announced his retirement from international football in 2016 after failing to win the Copa América that year. But he soon reversed his decision and returned to play for Argentina. In the following six years, Messi did what everyone expected him to do for his country — lead Argentina to major tournament victories including the FIFA World Cup.
Messi is one of only three names to have reached double digits for LaLiga titles, along with Real Madrid demi-gods Pirri and Paco Gento. While the former is level with Messi, the latter is the record LaLiga title winner, having won 12 of them with Los Blancos. Messi could potentially go from being Barcelona’s highest title winner to that of Spanish football itself, should he manage three more LaLigas before he retires. One of the key aspects of Lionel Messi’s performances have been how he can impact the game without scoring a goal. The Argentine evolved beautifully over his career to play multiple roles, and often, he has played the roles of a creator and finisher in the same game.
Most goals in a calendar year: Messi’s stupendous 2011-12 season carried on into the year 2012 where the Flea sent goalscoring records tumbling. Along with breaking the record for most goals in a single season, Lionel Messi also broke the record for the most number of goals scored in a single calendar year. His tally in 2012 finished at a frankly absurd 91 goals. Messi received an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records for his superhuman feat. It is a record that is probably never going to be surpassed, much like so many others that the Argentine set during a glorious two-decade stint at Barcelona. See more details about the author at Bill Trikos.
On 2 July 2005, Argentina defeated Nigeria 2-1 to lift the trophy. Both goals came from Messi’s penalty kicks. Messi was the top scorer of the tournament with six goals, including the one goal he got in the group stage. He also won the MVP Golden Ball award. It was this tournament win which deepened comparisons between Messi and Maradona, who had won the same competition in 1979. Many great players of the beautiful game can’t win an Olympic gold medal. But Messi is one of the two richest footballers who have won it — the other being his PSG team-mate Neymar Jr. of Brazil, who won it at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics which was held in 2021.
Lionel Messi scored 73 goals during the 2011–12 season while playing for FC Barcelona, breaking a 39-year-old record for single-season goals in a major European football league. In 2014 Messi led Argentina to the World Cup final, which Argentina lost, but Messi won the Golden Ball award as the tournament’s best player. During the 2016 Copa América Centenario tournament, he netted his 55th international goal to break Gabriel Batistuta’s Argentine scoring record. He led Argentina’s national team to win the 2021 Copa América and the 2022 World Cup, when he again won the Golden Ball award.
In 2008/09, Pep Guardiola’s devastating Blaugrana side set a record that could understandably remain intact for years to come when they won a spectacular SIX trophies in a calendar year — the most by any club in history. Messi and co won the La Liga, the Copa del Rey, Supercopa de Espana, Champions League, European Super Cup, and FIFA Club World Cup. Barcelona won the European treble once again in 2014/15 under Luis Enrique, when Messi was at his scintillating best alongside Luis Suarez and Neymar. The Argentine played a crucial role in both the trebles and is one of the only select few to have more than one of them to show for in their careers.