BARCELONA
When did Messi score his first and last goals for Barcelona?
Leo Messi was already established in Barcelona’s first team by the time he was in his late teens. He scored his first goal for the club aged 17.
No other player has made as many appearances for Barcelona’s first team (778) or scored as many goals for the blaugranas - or in fact for any one club in the history of the game (672) as Lionel Messi. Both of those records look set to stand for a while yet and Messi’s goals record may never be broken. The Argentinean is also the all-time top scorer in the history of LaLiga with 474 goals. To put that into perspective, the next player in the ranking, is Cristiano Ronaldo on 311. He also holds the record for the most hat tricks in LaLiga - 36; in total, he has bagged an eye-watering 54 hat tricks for Barça since celebrating his first one in March 2007 and his last one, against Eibar in February 2020.
The first of many: Messi's debut goal for Barcelona
So many goals and so many records, it’s easy to forget where it all started for Leo Messi. His first ever goal for Barcelona’s first team came in unofficial competition - just a few months after Frank Rijkaard had handed the teenager his debut (in a friendly against Porto in November 2003). Messi scored Barça’s fourth goal in a pre-season friendly against Third Division side Palamós in July 2004 in the third game of a summer stage. Messi had played 30 minutes of the previous match against Figueres but his first ever goal didn’t arrive until a couple of days later in the 0-6 win over Palamós on 20 July. Messi had replaced Oriol Riera at half-time and opened his account on 75 minutes. He picked up a loose ball and cut inside, losing one rival defender before confidently tucking a low shot inside the post from the edge of the area.
He found the net again during that pre-season, in the 0-5 friendly win over Kashima Antlers in Tokyo during the Asian Tour but his first goal in official competition didn’t come until the following year.
Messi gets off the mark in official competition
Messi scored his first official goal for Barcelona in the Week 34 LaLiga meeting with Albacete at Camp Nou on 1 May 2005 - in his eighth league appearance for the senior side that season. Messi was brought on for Samuel Eto’o in the final minutes of the game with the score at 1-0. He’d only been on the pitch for a couple of minutes when Ronaldinho put him clean through, dinking the ball up for him just inside the box. Messi finished the move off, beating keeper Raúl Valbuena with an exquisite, beautifully-weighted lob. Not a bad way to officially open your account.
What looks as though it may well have been Messi’s last goal for Barcelona, his 778th, came in the 1-2 LaLiga defeat to Celta Vigo at Camp Nou on 16 May 2021. Busquets picked out the No.10 with a lofted pass just on the half hour and Messi, who was practically unmarked, had a free header past Iván Villar. It brought up his 30th goal of the season and a record eighth Pichichi award. But sadly, Messi didn’t get a chance to add to it, he was left out of the squad for the final league game of the season against Eibar which means that his last ever game and final goal for Barça came in that penultimate match against Celta.