The Maestro’s crescendo: A tribute to Lionel Messi’s goal-scoring record

The upper-echelon clubs in Europe have some of the best talent in the world on their rosters. But words can’t even describe the players who are literally the best of the best, like Lionel Messi. The Maestro recorded a hat trick in Saturday’s 5-1 win against Sevilla, and he  broke the all-time La Liga goal-scoring record (251 goals) that Telmo Zarra had previously held for six decades.

Zarra first joined Athletic Bilbao in 1940 and played his entire La Liga career there until 1955, winning the league scoring title six times. By his own admission, he preferred to dribble the ball rather than shooting it, but felt that the latter was the only way to stop defenders from kicking him.

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Enter Messi, a Barcelona prodigy who can play up front as a striker or in the midfield, distributing the ball to his other teammates. His goals have been accumulating at a clip that seems almost surreal. Although in Messi’s case, it has been said that until he captains the Argentina national team to a World Cup win (as Diego Maradona did), he won’t earn the
“greatest football player of the modern era” title. But since football is a team sport with eleven men on the pitch, is this really a fair analogy? Keep in mind that Lionel Messi’s squad finished runner-up in the last World Cup, losing 1-0 to a sound German team.

And while it has taken the Maestro 289 games to break the record that Zarra was able to hold after 277 games, the feat is nonetheless remarkable. Messi’s record is a testament to his greatness on the pitch, and a cause for celebration.

There will be others who will be chasing Messi’s record, in the same manner that he chased Zarra’s. And with the current second-place holder of goals scored in La Liga being none other than Cristiano Ronaldo, who knows what the future might hold. For now, we can watch Messi’s record-setting goal over and over.

But today, we salute the new and previous record-holders for goals scored, and the joy they have brought to so many who share a level of love and respect for the greatest sport in the world.

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