Oct 28, 2012 2
Is there no end to Lionel Messi’s talents? Superlatives have long been exhausted for the Rosario-born star yet still the Argentine continues to do what he does best: score goals.
On Saturday night, Messi notched his 300th and 301st goals of his professional career as Barcelona maintained their unbeaten start to La Liga with a 5-0 thrashing of Rayo Vallecano.
His deadly double helped him smash through the 300-goal mark – 270 of which have come for Barca and 31 for Argentina in only 419 matches. A staggering feat for a player who only turned 25 back in June.
In all, Messi has been directly involved in 87 of the 131 goals scored by Barca this year: 62 goals, 25 assists. Messi’s brace in Madrid on Saturday him to 13 in the league already this season while propelling him to 73 goals for club and country in 2012.
That’s just two behind Pele’s 75 for Santos and Brazil in 1959, and only 12 shy of Gerd Muller’s all-time best calendar year record of 85 goals for Bayern Munich and West Germany in 1972.
With 15 games remaining for Barca this year – eight league, three Champions League and four Copa del Rey – and another two potentially for Argentina – against Saudi Arabia and Brazil next month – who’d bet against Messi surpassing Muller’s impressive haul.
It would complete a stunning year on a personal level for Messi after he also unsurped Cesar Rodriguez (232 goals) as the Catalan giants’ all-time leading scorer back in March.
