Lionel Messi has finally joined the league of players that have scored 700 professional career goals as he scored his 630th goal for Barcelona on Tuesday, June 30, 2020, to bring his total career goals to 700.
The Argentine football icon has scored 70 goals for Argentina national team so far in his international career. His first goal for Argentina came while playing for the country’s Under-20s. While his first goal for Barcelona came while playing for Barcelona “C” in 2003-2004 season. During those periods of his career, Messi scored a total of 27 goals.
This means that the 33-year-old forward has scored 727 goals in 917 official games, making him the 7th player in the history of football with over 700 goals to his name. However, those 27 goals are not counted as professional goals since he scored them while still an amateur player. Hence, he got his 700th professional career goal on Tuesday against Atletico Madrid.
In the historic match, the first goal came in the 11th minute when Diego Costa reflected Lionel Messi‘s cross into his own net. Atletico Madrid did not wait for more than 7 minutes to equalise through the spot-kick in the 18th minute by Saul Niguez.
And then, Lionel Messi‘s moment to score his 700th professional career goal came through the 50th minute “Panenka” penalty kick. He stylishly lifted the ball into the net and sent the keeper, Jan Oblak, to the wrong side of the goalpost. The beautiful penalty kick was Messi‘s 5th spot-kick this season.
700th goal for Lionel Messi 🐐 pic.twitter.com/EBn28sLeSh
— 19! (@RockyKlopp) June 30, 2020
The stylish spot-kick gave Barcelona 2-1 lead in the must-win match but the club was not able to sustain the lead for more than 12 minutes before Atletico Madrid made it 2-2 from the penalty spot taken in by Saul in the 62nd minute.
This has brought the number of draws Barcelona has suffered since football returned to Spain in June, to three in four matches. That means that the club had won only one match in their last four encounters. If their bitter rival, Real Madrid, win their outstanding game on Thursday against Getafe, they will top Barcelona with 4 clear points.
As for Lionel Messi, this season has not been one of the best in his career as the reigning world player of the year, has scored 26 goals in 37 appearances in all competitions for Barcelona. He has scored 21 goals in 27 Spanish La Liga games this season.
In celebration of the 700th professional career goal, Lionel Messi has scored so far, UEFA Champions League official Twitter handle shared a video mix of some of his greatest goals in the Champions League.
7⃣0⃣0⃣ goals for club & country. Leo Messi 👏👏👏#UCL | @FCBarcelona pic.twitter.com/ouDKKS7CDH
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) June 30, 2020
Players that are still ahead of Lionel Messi
Cristiano Ronaldo, the closest rival of Lionel Messi, is still the all-time highest goalscorer that is still active. He scored his 746th goal in a 3-0 win for Juventus on Tuesday over Genoa in Serie A.
It was Ronaldo’s 24th goal in Serie A this season and his 28th goal in all competitions. The Tuesday’s win has given Juventus 4 points lead over Lazio at the top of Serie A with 9 matches left to play.
However, according to the Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF), the overall all-time highest goalscorer is Czechoslovakia legend Josef Biscan. Not much is known about him but records show that he was part of the legendary Austria Wunderteam of the 1930s.
List of top 7 All-Time Highest goalscorers in the world:
7. Lionel Messi
700 goals in 862 games – 2003-present
6. Gerd Muller
735 goals in 793 games – 1962-1981
5. Cristiano Ronaldo
744 goals in 1041 games – 2001-present
4. Ferenc Puskas
746+ goals in 754+ games – 1943-1966
3. Pele
767 goals in 831 games – 1957-1977
2. Romario
772 goals 994 games – 1985-2007
- Josef Bican
805+ goals in 530+ games – 1931-1956
