Every appearance of this footballer on the field is expected by millions of fans. Each of his blows on the ball is perceived by them as a man's flight into space. Each goal is relished and discussed in all possible and even impossible details. His name is Lionel Messi and he scores for FC Barcelona.
"Fight" from Argentina
The current top scorer of the planet Lionel Messi began his stellar career at the Argentine Newells Old Boys, from where, at the age of 13, thanks to the selection talent of the sports director of Barcelona Carles Rexach, he moved to the European continent, to the football school of the famous Spanish club. It was in Barcelona that the 17-year-old Argentinian scored the first of many hundreds of professional goals.
9 minutes in the derby
For the first time on the field of the Barcelona stadium "Camp Nou" Messi entered the fall of 2004, having spent 9 minutes in a duel against fellow countrymen from Espanyol. On the scoreboard, the name of the South American talent "lit up" on May 1, 2005 - with the goal of "Albacete". Distinguished at the age of 17 years, 10 months and 7 days, Messi turned out to be the youngest goalscorer in the history of the team from Catalonia.
The debut match in Barcelona was not marked by anything special for Messi. On October 16, 2004, 9 minutes before the end of the winning derby against Espanyol, he replaced the Portuguese Deco. But then he did not score a goal.
The South American junior scored his debut in the Champions League on November 2, 2005, hitting the gates of the Greek team Panathinaikos. And the official ball number 1 in the form of the Argentine national team played during the 2006 World Cup, taking part in the defeat of the national team of Serbia and Montenegro.
How many in total?
Over the next eight plus years, Messi, nicknamed "Flea" for his diminutive stature, scored more … By the way, how much exactly?
Alas, the exact statistics of goals sent by "Blokha" to the opponents' gates in the championship and the Spanish Cup, the Champions League, as well as in the Argentina national team, apparently does not exist in nature. Different sources name a different number of them.
According to one of them, on January 1, 2014, Messi had 453 goals in his assets. Most of them - 367 - he scored while playing for Barcelona (340 of them in official games). Another 37 times, the striker distinguished himself in games for the Argentinean national team, of which Lionel is now captain and with which he will soon go to Brazil for medals at the World Cup. How many, interestingly, goalkeepers will have to get the balls out of the net of their gates sadly
Lionel Messi scored 37 times in the Argentina national team, but the heir to the fame of Diego Maradona is not going to stop on this achievement. Lionel is planning a gold medal at the World Championship in Brazil.
But another source, the football site BestGoal.tv, calculated that Messi's scorer at the same time had “only” 366 goals, 329 of which he spent playing in Barcelona's uniform.
Messi is a head and a goal
As you know, an injury for someone who knows how to score is not a hindrance. And to the numbers mentioned above, you need to add the goals scored by Messi who recovered from a serious injury already in January-March 2014.
Having played after recovering for Barça in all tournaments with its participation - the championship and the National Cup, in the Champions League - Messi struck 14 more accurate shots. Thus, as of March 9, 2014, 467 goals must be recorded in his scorer roster. Of these, in Barcelona - 381 (354 in official matches).
Well, paraphrasing the well-known expression of the writers Ilf and Petrov, it is worth saying with respect: "Messi is the head!" Although the main "working tool" of the short Lionel is, rather, his famous left leg.
Race for Sarah
Having broken many goalscoring records, Lionel Messi is ready to swing at a new one - the club one. After scoring recently against Real Sociedad and Almeria, Messi brought his own goal-scoring balance in the championship to 230 goals. Thus, he overtook the ex-striker of the Spanish national team Raul by two goals and took the third position in the conditional race of the scorers of the Spanish Examples of All Time. Only Mexican Hugo Sanchez (234 goals) and Spaniard Telmo Sarra (251) are ahead of Messi in it.
If Messi manages to score 22 goals in the eleven matches remaining before the finish of the 2014 Example, he will be able to break the record for Athletic forward Telmo Sarra, becoming the most productive scorer of this tournament for the entire period of its holding.
However, according to the journalist of the Spanish newspaper El Confidential, Messi, whose contract with the club, in fact, is valid for another 4, 5 years, is actively invited to the French "Paris Saint-Germain" and the English "Manchester City". The latter, according to the newspaper, offers Barcelona 200 million euros, and the Argentine striker - 25 million, but a year.
