Lionel Messi has finally broken football legend Pele’s record of most goals and assists whilst trumping adversary Cristiano Ronaldo in the process.
Messi’s haul of two strikes and the same amount of assists in Paris Saint-Germain’s 7-2 victory over Maccabi Haifa in the Champions League on Tuesday night brought his total number of goal participations to 1,127, the most ever by a player to date. Messi attained the biggest chunk of his new accolade at Barcelona where he bagged 627 goals and 303 assists in 778 appearances. And he’s hit the net 22 times, while providing 27 assists since moving to PSG last summer.
Plus the attacker’s scored 90 times, and setup 54 goals in 164 matches on international duty for Argentina. Before Messi, the record for most goal contributions was held by Brazil icon Pele, who had over 1,000 to his name, according to One Football – although many of these have been disputed as they happened in friendly games.
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While trailblazing past Pele, Ronaldo also became an unwanted victim of Messi’s genius. His tally of four goal contributions against Maccabi saw him become the oldest player to do so ahead of the Manchester United star.
On top of that, Messi’s now scored 85 goals of 80 group stages in the elite European competition, trouncing Ronaldo’s record of 73. However, the rivals still share the same amount of Champions League hat-tricks – with eight each.
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(Image: S&G and Barratts/EMPICS Sport)
(Image: Getty Images)
But it’s not just Ronaldo and Pele that Messi’s getting the better of with his input in front of goal this season. He’s the only player to reach double figures in goals and assists in Europe’s top five leagues in the current campaign.
If Messi continues in this rich vein of form he’s bound to set the World Cup on fire when it begins in November. And fans think it’s his destiny to win the competition for Argentina where he could play his 1,000th game if his country reach the final.
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