Some people may believe that the player labelled already as the world’s greatest ever cannot surely get any better – but he can!
On Sunday, Lionel Messi equalled and then broke Bayern Munich legend Gerd Muller’s 40 year-old record of 85 goals in a single calendar year by scoring a brace in a 2-1 win against Real Betis in their latest La Liga match. It took the three time Ballon d’Or winner and twice La Liga top scorer just 25 minutes to score his historic 85th and 86th goal of the year, firstly by bursting into the box and driving the ball past the Betis keeper in the 16th minute of the game and then by curling the ball into the far corner of the net following a clever backheel from Iniesta in the 25th minute. There had been much worry that Messi would not make the match due to being stretchered off after suffering a bruised leg in the midweek Champions League group game against Benfica. However, he was passed fit enough to play. The prolific Barcelona forward had already broken another of Muller’s records a few months ago after scoring 73 goals for Barcelona in the 2011-12 season, beating Muller’s tally of 67 for Bayern Munich in the 1971-72 campaign, which had previously been the highest number of goals scored in a single European club season.
Messi adds the new record to a host of others that he already holds, including most La Liga hat-tricks in a season (8) and top scorer in all competitions for Barcelona, with 283 goals in 353 appearances. He is again up for the coveted Ballon d’Or award this year, competing against Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo and teammate Iniesta and breaking the record can only help him along the path to win his fourth in as many years. The Argentinean could even further extend the scoring record as Barcelona still have three games left to play in 2012.
So there we have it, another two goals and another broken record for the extremely talented Lionel Messi, and at only 25, the amazing thing is that he could potentially and probably will, break a lot, lot more! However, it will be hard for Messi to break Archie Thompson’s record. The Australian scored a Hat-trick in only 5 minutes. The next record Messi is likely to break is Raul’s 75 goals in the Champions League. Messi currently has 56, but he is only 25 years old.
