Mercurial Messi joins football's elite 600 club
The Barcelona ace reached another landmark with his brace Chelsea - scoring his 100th Champions League goal, in 123 games.
Leo Messi, “the player with wing mirrors” as The Daily Mail described his blind-pass to Dembélé to score Barcelona's second goal against Chelsea last night, became the eighth player in history to reach 600 goals as a professional. He joins an ilustrious list of football greats which includes Pelé (757 goals), Josef Bican (756), Romário (749), Ferenc Puskás (704), Gerd Müller (673), Cristiano Ronaldo (641) and Eusébio (621). Messi has scored 540 goals in 615 official games with Barcelona (averaging 0.81 goals per game) and 61 in 123 games with Argentina (0.5 per game).
100 Champions League goals
And the Barça ace had more reasons to celebrate as he also reached three figures in the Champions League. It has taken Messi 123 games to reach 100 goals in the tournament with an average of 0.81 goals per game. Only Cristiano Ronaldo, who is currently on 116 goals from 147 games (0.78 average), has scored more in the competition. Both tallies are extraordinary to say the least.
Messi's favourite victims include Sevilla (29 goals), Atlético de Madrid (28) and Real Madrid (25). At international level his goals have been spread out more evenly - he has scored four goals against Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela and Ecuador.
