The Argentine Barcelona star striker now has more “hat tricks” than any other player, while he has scored over 40 goals in six different seasons.
Barcelona's star striker Lionel Messi keeps on impressing fans and experts alike as he continues to set new records.
Messi broke a five-decade old “hat trick” record Sunday in a Spanish league match, as Barcelona cruised to a 6-0 victory against Rayo Vallecano, which put the team in first place above rival Real Madrid.
Messi played a very low-key first half, but after half-time the Argentine forward came out to the field by scoring three times withing 12 minutes, achieving his 32nd “hat trick.” One of Messi's goal was a penalty shot that he had initially missed, but that was retaken because the rival team's players invaded the field.
The Barcelona striker broke a record set by Telmo Zarra decades ago, who played for the Bilbao Athletic football club.
Lionel Messi. God of football. pic.twitter.com/E6LifzXQQ8
After his hat trick, Messi now has 41 goals in 38 games, which is the same amount he scored all of last season in 46 games. This statistic also makes Messi the first player in Spanish football soccer history to score 40 or more goals in six different seasons.
In November, Messi broke a second goal-scoring record in just four days. He surpassed Spanish striker Raul Gonzalez as the player with most goals made in the Champions League. Also in November, Messi became the top scorer in Spanish football history.
Messi, born June 24, 1987, began playing football at age 8 for the Argentine Newell's Old Boys team. He was there until the year 2000, and has been playing for Barcelona ever since.
By the age of 21 in 2008, Messi had already received Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations. In 2009, he won his first Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards. He then won the inaugural FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2010, and then again in 2011 and 2012. He also won the 2010–11 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award.
In 2011, he became Barcelona's all-time top scorer in all official club competitions, and three years later, he scored his 400th senior career goal for club and country.
Often considered the greatest soccer player of all time, Messi became the first player in history to win four FIFA/Ballons d'Or, all of which he won consecutively, and the first to win three European Golden Shoe awards.
(Photo: Reuters)
Barcelona Now Leads the Spanish League
Barcelona now has 62 points, which is one point ahead of Real Madrid, which lost 1-0 against the Bilbao Athletic on Saturday. Barcelona, who is first place for he first time since the start of the season in November, has a scheduled “classic” game in two weeks against Real Madrid.
“Now we're headed to the most decisive stretch of the season and we expect to be on top of our game,” Barcelona's head coach Luis Enrique said. “We still need to improve in various areas of our game, but we are now were we wanted to be.”
No other Spanish club player has ever made 32 hat tricks. Messi now has 24 in league games, five in Champions League, two in the Spanish Cup and one in the Spanish Supercup, according to ESPN.
This eclipses Telmo Zarraondia’s record, who played between 1940 and 1955 and who is better known as Zarra, with 31 hat tricks. Alfredo di Stefano has 28 and Cristiano Ronaldo 27. Spanish-Argentine forward Di Stefano also played between the 1940s and 1950s and was regarded as one of the best players of all time.
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