Twenty years, one king: Lionel Messi’s scoring reign explained
Once thought sacred after Maradona, Argentina’s No. 10 found a new owner whose dominance reshaped two decades of football history.
After Diego Armando Maradona, it was widely believed that Argentina’s No. 10 would be untouchable. The shirt passed through the hands of players such as Ariel Ortega and Marcelo Gallardo, but it was only when Juan Román Riquelme wore it from 1999 to 2008 that there was a sense the number was truly in safe hands.
No one imagined that from 2009 onward, a young player from Rosario who inherited that magical jersey would establish absolute dominance with both club and country, becoming the most recognized and respected Argentine footballer of the contemporary era.
More and more data now confirms that no one comes close to Lionel Andrés Messi.This time, the focus is on his goal scoring at club level, measured across the past two decades and compared with the seven other Argentines who complete the ranking of prolific scorers from 2006 to 2025.
11 consecutive years as the best
Messi made his debut with Barcelona in 2005, four years after climbing through the club’s youth system following his arrival in 2002, and it took him just four seasons to inaugurate his goal-scoring hegemony.
Almost as if the key lay in receiving the No. 10 shirt with the Argentina national team, Leo Messi did not slow down, making 2009 his year – the beginning of everything.
According to data published by Transfermarkt, before the Inter Miami captain went on to lead the charts for eleven straight years as the top Argentine scorer at club level, four compatriots had briefly occupied the summit: Rodrigo Palacio with 24 goals for Boca Juniors in 2006; Martín Palermo with 30 goals in 2007, also for Boca; and Sergio Agüero with 27 goals in 2008 for Atlético Madrid.
Agüero was the last to appear before Messi’s uninterrupted reign, which unfolded as follows:
2009: Lionel Messi, 38 goals
2010: Lionel Messi, 58 goals
2011: Lionel Messi, 55 goals
2012: Lionel Messi, 79 goals
2013: Lionel Messi, 39 goals
2014: Lionel Messi, 50 goals
2015: Lionel Messi, 48 goals
2016: Lionel Messi, 51 goals
2017: Lionel Messi, 50 goals
2018: Lionel Messi, 47 goals
2019: Lionel Messi, 45 goals
Four more compatriots briefly enter the picture
By 2020, tensions between the Argentine star and the club of his life were already becoming evident, compounded by Barcelona’s wider crisis. That year, Ramiro Rocca broke through in the rankings, ending Messi’s streak with 27 goals for Deportivo Iztapa in Guatemala’s Liga Banrural.
Still, Messi was not about to leave Catalonia without one last, sweetest farewell. In 2021 he returned to the podium with 34 goals before moving on to France with Paris Saint-Germain. From 2022 to 2024, the honors went to Germán Cano with 37 goals for Fluminense, Lautaro Martínez with 37 for Inter Milan, and in 2024 Adrián Martínez with 30 goals for Racing.
But as always, Leo Messi came back for revenge in 2025. His MLS Golden Boot allowed him to reclaim his familiar throne, scoring 37 goals in a golden season in which he lifted the first title in the history of David Beckham’s Herons.
With that latest crown, the No. 10 has now topped the list 13 times in the past 20 years – 13 of them belonging to Messi, the eternal synonym for goals.
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