Messi could miss the chance to break this 50-year old goals record should he leave Barcelona

Messi could miss the chance to break 50-year old club goals record should he leave Barcelona

Should Lionel Messi make good on his threat to quit Barcelona, he could end up not being able to break one of club football’s longest-standing goals record – Brazilian football legend Pelé’s 643 in all competitions for just one club Santos, an all-time world record which has stood for the past 50 years – and which the Argentine has come desperately close to.

Messi is desperately close to resetting that record and is the only player on the planet who has a chance doing so. The Barcelona number 10 ended the 2019/20 season on 26 goals in all competitions to take his total for for the club to 634, just nine short of Pele’s record.

That is one of many records which Messi holds in LaLiga, for Barcelona, Argentina and in world football. He is the all-time top goal scorer in the Spanish top flight with 444 goals (the nearest player who is still active is Karim Benzema on 169 goals).

Messi’s records don’t stop there – he is the player to have scored the most goals in one calendar year (91),the player to have scored the most hat tricks in LaLiga (35) the only player to have scored 50 goals or more in nine seasons and the player to have won the most Ballons d’Or (6), Golden Shoe awards (6) and FIFA World Player of the Year awards (6).

If he ends up leaving Barcelona, Messi will certainly abort the chance of taking Pelé’s club goals record as he would certainly have scored enough goals to equal and even surpass the milestone during the final year of his contract at Camp Nou.

However, with the look of things, Messi is set to leave and Pelé’s record will remain intact – and probably never to be broken.