Messi milestone tracker: PSG star nears 800 career goals

There isn’t much left for Lionel Messi to win in a truly astounding football career that has already seen the Paris Saint-Germain superstar claim just about every major trophy available to him, including multiple Champions League triumphs with Barcelona and that precious and previously elusive World Cup winner’s medal for Argentina.

Indeed, the only competition that Messi has played in and not won during his professional career is the Coupe de France, although he’ll have to wait until next season at least for that elusive piece of silverware after Marseille’s win over PSG on Feb. 8 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.

Here we take a look at his trophy haul, his 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.

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 40 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) as well as a hat trick of international honours with Argentina; the CONMEBOL-UEFA Cup of Champions (also known as the Finalissima), the Copa America and the 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.