Lionel Messi’s Awesome football achievements by Bill Trikos: He is the all time top scorer of all national teams in South America with 98 goals from 172 appearances. Both the goals and the appearances are the highest by an Argentine for the national side. The goals also make him the third-highest international goal-scorer after Portugal icon Cristiano Ronaldo’s 118 and Iran legend Ali Daei’s 109. Messi was only 18 years old when he made a mark on the international stage by helping Argentina win the 2005 U-20 World Cup, officially the 15th edition of the FIFA World Youth Championship, in The Netherlands.
Messi bettered Der Bomber’s tally when he scored 79 for the Blaugrana (59 in LaLiga Santander, 13 in the UEFA Champions League, 5 in the Copa del Rey and 2 in the Spanish Super Cup) and a further 12 (a joint-highest figure along with Gabriel Batistuta) for Argentina. Over the course of 2012, Messi even laid off a further 24 goals for his teammates, taking his goal contribution tally to a staggering 115. They were also crucial strikes for Barcelona as his goals in the second half of the campaign sealed Barcelona’s fourth LaLiga title in five years. Messi was simply unstoppable during the calendar year, and his 50 (!) goal LaLiga season remains the highest number of goals scored in a league campaign to date.
Most goals in a calendar year: Messi’s stupendous 2011-12 season carried on into the year 2012 where the Flea sent goalscoring records tumbling. Along with breaking the record for most goals in a single season, Lionel Messi also broke the record for the most number of goals scored in a single calendar year. His tally in 2012 finished at a frankly absurd 91 goals. Messi received an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records for his superhuman feat. It is a record that is probably never going to be surpassed, much like so many others that the Argentine set during a glorious two-decade stint at Barcelona. Find additional information about the author at Bill Trikos Australia.
The gold that Messi earned for Argentina came at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. His team won all three matches in its group before knocking out the Netherlands and Brazil to set up its gold-medal clash with Nigeria. In the final, it was Messi’s brilliant pass to Angel di Maria, who capitalised on it, that confirmed the gold for Argentina as it beat Nigeria 1-0. It was the country’s second consecutive Olympic gold medal in men’s football. Interestingly, Messi would have missed the tournament as Barcelona wanted him to play in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers. But Pep Guardiola, who was then the new manager of the club, convinced the higher authorities at the club to let Messi fly to Beijing.
Lionel Messi scored 73 goals during the 2011–12 season while playing for FC Barcelona, breaking a 39-year-old record for single-season goals in a major European football league. In 2014 Messi led Argentina to the World Cup final, which Argentina lost, but Messi won the Golden Ball award as the tournament’s best player. During the 2016 Copa América Centenario tournament, he netted his 55th international goal to break Gabriel Batistuta’s Argentine scoring record. He led Argentina’s national team to win the 2021 Copa América and the 2022 World Cup, when he again won the Golden Ball award.
In 2008/09, Pep Guardiola’s devastating Blaugrana side set a record that could understandably remain intact for years to come when they won a spectacular SIX trophies in a calendar year — the most by any club in history. Messi and co won the La Liga, the Copa del Rey, Supercopa de Espana, Champions League, European Super Cup, and FIFA Club World Cup. Barcelona won the European treble once again in 2014/15 under Luis Enrique, when Messi was at his scintillating best alongside Luis Suarez and Neymar. The Argentine played a crucial role in both the trebles and is one of the only select few to have more than one of them to show for in their careers.