Barcelona: Messi could miss out on Pelé’s club goals record
Leo Messi is just nine goals off equalling the all-time club goals record held by Pele for the last 50 years but if he leaves Barça, the record will remain intact.
If he ends up leaving Barcelona as he is threatening to, Leo Messi will be unable to break one of football’s longest-standing records. Brazilian football legend Pelé hit 643 in all competitions for just one club - Santos, an all-time, world record which during the past 50 years, only one player has come remotely near it - and that's Leo Messi.
Pichichi No.7
Messi is desperately close to resetting that record and the only player on the planet who has a chance doing so. The Barcelona number 10 ended the 2019/20 season on 26 goals in all competitions (21 in LaLiga, four in the Champions League and one in the Copa del Rey). In June, he reached 700 goals for both club and country (630 for Barça, 70 for Argentina) and while it was a disappointing season for the team, he collected a record seventh Pichichi award – surpassing legendary Spanish marksman Telmo Zarra, after whom the trophy is named, who won it six times.
That is one of many records which Messi holds in LaLiga, for Barcelona, Argentina and in world football. He is the all-time top goal scorer in the Spanish top flight with 444 goals (the nearest player who is still active is Karim Benzema on 169 goals). And Messi’s records don’t stop there – he is the player to have scored the most goals in one calendar year (91),the player to have scored the most hat tricks in LaLiga (35) the only player to have scored 50 goals or more in nine seasons and the player to have won the most Ballons d’Or (6), Golden Shoe awards (6) and FIFA World Player of the Year awards (6).
Messi, just nine goals off Pelé’s record
But if he does end up leaving Barcelona, Messi will effectively ruin his chances of taking Pelé’s club goals record. As things, stand he is just nine goals off equalling Pelé’s 643 goals. Messi’s tally for Barcelona is 634 and he would have almost certainly equalled Pelé’s 643 goals - and gone past it during the final year of his contract at Camp Nou. But the way things are looking, Messi is set to leave and Pelé’s record will remain intact - and probably never to be broken.