Lionel Messi reveals his favourite goal of his entire career | OneFootball

Highlights

There aren’t many people who would dispute Lionel Messi’s status as the greatest player of all time at this point. After all, he has scored goals for fun at both club and international level. But despite there being so many occasions where Messi has found the back of the net, the Argentine has now admitted that one goal does stand out to him above all the others.

Messi’s status as the GOAT was further cemented on Monday night when he collected the eighth Ballon d’Or of his career. The 36-year-old beat out competition from Manchester City’s Erling Haaland and Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe to secure his title as the best player in the world for 2023.

It was no less than he deserved after the year he has had for PSG, Inter Miami, and of course, Argentina. Collecting the World Cup trophy and being named the tournament’s best player at the end of 2022 really ended the debate before it even started, and his 16 goals and 16 assists for PSG only added to his claim. As did his 11 goals for Miami since he arrived in America.

Messi’s incredible goal tally

Quite the tally for the little magician in the last year, who has wasted little time in taking America by storm. He has scored some magnificent goals at the DRV PNK Stadium already, including an absolute stunner in his MLS debut.

All of his efforts in the last year have taken his incredible goalscoring tally to 821 career goals for both club and country. The bulk of those came during his time at Barcelona, with Messi taking to the Camp Nou turf for 17 years and playing with some of the biggest names in football.

Statistics per GOAL

Messi picks out his favourite goal

Among the 672 goals for La Blaugrana were some absolutely spectacular efforts where Messi dribbled between opponents as if they weren’t even there. His run in the Copa Del Rey final against Athletic Bilbao is staggering to watch back, as are countless others.

But interestingly, it’s not that goal which stands out to Messi as the best of his career. Nor is it one of the goals he bagged in the World Cup final. Sitting down following his Ballon d’Or success earlier this week, the attacker was asked if one effort stood out to him in his career. And he admitted one did.

Messi loved a goal against Real Madrid in his career. In his 47 matches against Los Blancos, the Barcelona icon found the back of the net on 20 occasions. Only two of those came in the Champions League, though, and both of them came on the same night in 2011.

The goal Messi is referring to is a thing of beauty too. Receiving the ball on the halfway line, he then plays a neat one-two before going through the gears in typical Messi fashion. There wasn’t much the defenders could do, with him storming past everyone before placing the ball past Iker Casillas. It really is a thing of beauty. Check it out for yourselves below.

Messi set for lengthy layoff

Unfortunately for fans, Messi is set for an extended period on the sidelines with no club matches coming up. Miami, after being eliminated from the MLS playoffs, had been set for a China tour later this month, but announced today that it had been cancelled for “unforeseen circumstances.”

With no club football in sight, Messi’s final matches of 2023 are likely to be Argentina’s World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Brazil later this month. La Albiceleste are currently top of the table and five points clear of Uruguay, with six points in the upcoming games keeping their 100% record intact and making them early favourites to qualify.