Lionel Messi is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, soccer players of all time. The 34 ýear-old all-time leading goals scorer for the Argentine national team has an array of accolades that are jaw dropping for one soccer player to have.
In his career Messi has won seven Ballon d’Or, been eight times LaLiga´s leading goal scorer, Argentine player of the year 14 times, and been LaLiga’s best player of the season six times. Those individual awards along with what he has won with Barcelona, Argentina, and PSG make him one of the most decorated athletes of all-time.
For Messi all of these accolades began on the muddy streets of Rosario, Argentina and playing for his childhood team Newell’s Old Boys at the youth level. Well according to a report, Messi has an interesting statistic that elevates him above his boyhood club.
Lionel Messi has scored more goals than Newell’s Old Boys since 2005
According to the data obtained by Rosario newspaper La Capital, since Messi scored his first goal in professional soccer to date, the Argentine superstar has outscored Newell’s, meaning Messi in his goal scoring career has scored more goals than all the players who have passed through Newell’s Old Boys since 2005 combined!
In total Messi has scored 769 goals in 966 games when adding up Barcelona, PSG, and Argentina matches. Newell’s Old Boys as a whole have scored 768 times in only 659 games.
Fans of Newell’s Old Boys display a banner with an image of Argentine player Lionel Messi (Photo by Marcos Brindicci/Getty Images)
Messi has played more games given all the major tournaments he has participated in, while Newell’s has won the league in Argentina once and made sporadic appearances playing Copa Libertadores or SudAmericana in that time.
In that time Ignacio Scocco has been Newell’s biggest scorer netting 82 goals. Not only that, Messi has won more Spanish LaLiga’s, 10, than Newell’s Old Boys have won titles in their whole history, 9.
Lionel Messi played for Newell’s at the youth level scoring 176 goals in 234 games before making his legendary move to Barcelona and his father signing his son’s original contract on a napkin. The rest is soccer history for one of the sport’s most incredible players.
