There isn’t much left for Lionel Messi to win in a truly astounding football career that has already seen the Paris Saint-Germain superstar claim just about every major trophy available to him, including multiple Champions League triumphs with Barcelona and that precious and previously elusive World Cup winner’s medal for Argentina.
Indeed, the only competition that Messi has played in and not won during his professional career is the Coupe de France, although he’ll have to wait until next season at least for that elusive piece of silverware after Marseille‘s win over PSG on Feb. 8 stopped him completing his personal clean sweep.
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However, since making his senior debut in 2004, Messi has accumulated a truly vast number of honours and individual records. And, even at the age of 35, he’s still closing in on an array of significant landmark achievements.
Here we take a look at his trophy haul, his career stats and the impressive array of records he already holds, as well as a comprehensive rundown of the major career milestones he has in his sights with regular updates as he nears each of them.
Messi’s career trophies
Since turning pro 19 years ago, Messi has been stockpiling trophies at an absurdly consistent rate. In fact, 2013-14 and 2019-20 were the only trophyless seasons of his career (unless you count the “Pichichi” award as LaLiga’s top goal scorer that he won in 2019-20.)
One of the most decorated players in football, the Argentine has 40 major honours to his name at club and international level, which leaves him just shy of former Barca teammate Dani Alves‘ record haul of 46. Messi’s longtime rival, Cristiano Ronaldo has 34 trophies under his belt.
Messi has won more major trophies with Barcelona (35) than any other player in the Catalan club’s 123-year history. That total includes 10 La Liga titles, eight Spanish Supercopas, seven Copa del Reys and four Champions Leagues (including 2005-06, when the teenaged Messi made six appearances including starts in both legs of the round-of-16 win over Chelsea.)
Messi added two major club titles during his maiden season in France (the Ligue 1 title and the Trophee des Champions) as well as a hat trick of international honours with Argentina; the CONMEBOL-UEFA Cup of Champions (also known as the Finalissima), the Copa America and the FIFA World Cup.
Records held by Messi
Messi holds a mass of individual records, befitting his status as one of the greatest of all-time. He has won the Ballon d’Or for being the world’s best player seven times, two more than Ronaldo who is next on the list. No other player, male or female, has won it more than three times.
Messi is also the only player to have won the FIFA World Cup Golden Ball award twice: firstly when he was a losing finalist in 2014, and again after leading his country to glory at the 2022 tournament.
As well as being his former club’s most decorated player, Messi is also Barca’s all-time top goal scorer (672) and appearance maker (778) following his 17-year association.
He also holds the record for most total goals scored by any player in LaLiga (474) as well as the most goals scored in a single LaLiga season (50) after reaching a half-century in 2011-12. Unbelievably, Messi also holds the record for most career league assists in LaLiga (192) and the record for the most assists made in a single season (21, in 2019-20), thus proving his extraordinary value as a creative force.
The former Barca forward has also scored more career hat tricks in LaLiga (36) than any other player, as well as sharing the record for the most hat tricks scored in a single season (eight, in 2011-12) with Ronaldo, who matched the feat with Real Madrid in 2014-15.
Messi’s untouchable form in 2012 also saw him set a new record as the man with most goals scored in single calendar year by netting 91 times: 79 for Barca, 12 for Argentina.
He is also the most frequent scorer in El Clasico matches between Barca and Real Madrid with 26 goals in 45 games. Ronaldo is joint-second on 18 goals (in 30 games,) alongside fellow Madrid great Alfredo Di Stefano.
As further testament to Messi’s longevity and consistency, he has made more LaLiga appearances than any other foreign-born player (520) while also having won more top-flight league titles in Spain than any other non-Spanish-born player (10).
While Ronaldo remains the Champions League’s all-time top scorer with 140 goals, Messi still jointly holds the record for most hat tricks scored in the competition (eight, level with Ronaldo). He was also the first player ever to score five goals in a single Champions League match when he smashed a quintuple past Bayer Leverkusen in the 2011-12 round of 16.
Messi also holds the Champions League records for most total goals in the round of 16 (29 goals) and the most goals scored in the group stage (80) while Ronaldo holds the corresponding records for the knockout phase overall (67), the quarterfinals (25), the semifinals (13) and the final (4).
Lionel Messi holds the record for most home goals scored in the Champions League with 78 (Ronaldo holds the record for away goals with 63), while also being the only player in competition history to have scored against 40 different opponents. He has also scored more goals for one club in the Champions League (120 for Barcelona) than any other player.
And just to add a little more icing to an already top-heavy cake, Messi’s run of scoring in 18 consecutive Champions League seasons between 2005-06 and 2022-23 is also a competition record.
MESSI’S UPCOMING MILESTONES
1,000 career games (Messi on 1,011) ACHIEVED
Messi took his total of senior matches played for club and country into four figures at the 2022 World Cup, in the round-of-16 win over Australia. Naturally, he scored one of the goals in the 2-1 win en route to lifting the trophy.
900 career club games (Messi on 871)
Messi can see the 900th appearance of his senior club career on the horizon. The maximum number of matches potentially remaining in PSG’s schedule this season won’t get him there, but he could reach it during the early part of the 2023-24 campaign.
800 career goals (Messi on 797)
Messi is close to becoming only the second player ever (depending on who’s numbers you use) to reach the 800-goal milestone, following in the wake of Cristiano Ronaldo, who brought up his eighth century with a brace in Manchester United‘s 3-2 victory over Arsenal in December 2021.
As far as the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) are concerned, Ronaldo is currently the world-record holder with 824 official goals for club and country. But other sources differ due to historical inconsistencies in the classification of “official” goals scored in “official” competitions.
For example, the late Pele claimed to have scored well over 1,000 goals during his career but due to the unreliability of the data collected during his heyday in the 1950s and 60s, and which goals count as being scored in “official” matches as opposed to “friendlies,” the Brazil legend’s tally could be as low as 757 goals.
700 career non-penalty goals (Messi on 689)
While many consider his consistency from the spot to be one of the few weak elements to his game, Messi has still successfully converted 108 times from 12 yards for club and country.
20 consecutive years with a senior goal (Messi on 19)
Messi needs to find the net just once next year (2024) to make it two full decades with at least one goal registered each and every season therein. Two years Messi’s senior, Ronaldo’s scoring streak now stands at 22 consecutive years now that he has opened his account for 2023 with Saudi side Al Nassr.
700 club goals (Messi on 699)
Messi total — split between Barcelona (672) and PSG means he will imminently reach the same milestone as Ronaldo did with a goal for Manchester United in a 2-1 win against Everton in October (which proved to be his last for the club.)
300 club assists (Messi on 294)
For all the cavalcade of goals scored down through the years, Messi is also a highly consistent assister and as such is just a few through-balls away from reaching a total of 300 in club competition, a realistic achievement before the end of the campaign.
1,000 club goal contributions (Messi on 993)
Just to hammer home the complete nature of his attacking talents, Messi’s total career goal contributions (i.e. goals plus assists) in club football is close to four figures. Staggering.
500 club league goals (Messi on 491)
Ronaldo was the first of the duo to pass 500 goals in club league games after scoring the 11th four-goal haul of his career for Al Nassr against Al Wehda on Feb. 10. However, Messi is not far behind, and is even closer to eclipsing Ronaldo’s total of 495 goals in Europe’s top five leagues.
50 goals in Champions League knockout phase (Messi on 49)
Messi is close to his half-century of goals at the business end of Europe’s top club competition, with only one man ahead of him: Ronaldo holds the record with 67 goals in 80 games between the round of 16 and the final.
100 senior international goals (Messi on 98)
Already the all-time top appearance-maker (172 games) and goal scorer (98 goals) for his national team, Messi is close to becoming the first Argentina player in history to score 100 goals. Trailing Messi by a considerable distance, Gabriel Batistuta is second on the list of the Albiceleste‘s highest scorers with 56 goals in 78 games, while the great Diego Maradona is fifth overall with 34 goals in 91 games.
Ronaldo is the man with the most goals scored in senior internationals of all-time, with 118 for Portugal in 196 games.
Despite both players being closer to 40 years of age than they are to 30, expect them to keep writing new records for a while yet.
ESPN’s Stats & Information Group contributed to this report
