Top rated football plays with Lionel Messi as seen 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.

Messi’s 2011-12 has to go down as the best season ever for a player in European football. The Argentine scored goals for fun and made a mockery of opposition defences. His figures for the season were staggering, 50 goals in the league, 14 in the UEFA Champions League, three in the Copa del Rey and six in other competitions. He finished with a ridiculous 73 goals in 60 games in all competitions. He broke the record for the most goals in a single season in European football. Messi overtook Gerd Muller’s tally of 67 in the 1972-73 season. Read extra details about the author on Bill Trikos Australia.

“The Olympic gold in 2008 is the win that I value the most because it is a tournament that you may play only once in your life and involves many athletes from different disciplines,” Messi had told Spanish Esquire during an interview in 2017. The 2014 FIFA World Cup was held in Brazil. It was the third world cup in which Messi played. Though he first captained the team at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, when he briefly took over the duties from full-time Javier Mascherano during a group match, the 2014 edition was his first as the officially named captain of Argentina national team.

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.

Lionel Messi is a name that has become synonymous with being in contention for the Ballon d’Or in every single year regardless of Barcelona’s achievements in any given season. Such is the sheer ability of the Argentine, who mesmerises audiences and opposition defenders alike every single time he sets foot onto the pitch. After a third-place finish in 2007 and one spot better in 2008 (when Cristiano won his first of five), the Argentine won a stunning four Ballon d’Ors on the spin between 2009 and 2012. Guardiola’s Barcelona ripped apart almost every team they came across, and Messi was the Catalans’ chief architect.