Fresh from winning a historic seventh Ballon d’Or, Lionel Messi has added yet another significant achievement to his dizzying array of feats.
The Paris Saint-Germain superstar scored twice in this morning’s 4-1 Champions League cruise over Club Brugge, overtaking Brazilian legend Pele to sit second in most all-time competitive goals in the world’s top-flight football competitions.
Messi now has 758 career goals, one ahead of Pele’s official total, with only Cristiano Ronaldo (801 and counting) in his sights.
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Messi is 34 and Ronaldo 36 so the finish to this goal-scoring race will be fascinating by football’s two modern masters.
It will also be interesting to see if Pele comments on Messi passing his tally.
The three-time World Cup winner has previously argued that his goals scored in military competitions, friendlies, exhibitions and pre-season matches should count in the record books.
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And he has also made some eyebrow-raising comments about Messi over the years, including an interview with Folha de Sao Paulo in 2018.
The Brazilian publication asked Pele simply whether Messi was a better player than him.
“How can you make a comparison between a guy who heads the ball well, shoots with the left, shoots with the right and another who only shoots with one leg, only has one skill and doesn’t head the ball well?
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“How can you compare? To compare with Pele, it has to be someone who shoots well with the left, shoots well with the right and scores headers.”
PSG finished second in Group A behind Manchester City and are through to the round of 16.
City were beaten 2-1 by RB Leipzig this morning but they had already sewn up top spot in the group.
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