10 - Lionel Messi - v2

[Papabeef]

Counting just official goals at Senior level (club+country):
- Pele 757 goals in 815 games
- Romario 749g in 972m
- Puskas 709g in 720m
- Gerd Muller 640g in 723m

Messi (345g in 457m) should end his career in Top 5, if he stays fit!

Each of these greats was dominating in a different era or decade apart from the other and you can see that being prolific generally keeps going down from Puskas to Pele to Muller then Romario. Football is becoming more enclosed in terms of scoring, no. of average goals in basically any top league keeps decreasing.



For someone of this era to be bringing in the numbers Cristiano is hauling is unbelievable as for someone to go even further.... well thats just unfair

 

[Kerrybai]

The most important thing will be the evolution Messi will make when he gets older. I can see him reaching the 600 mark when he's 30 but how will his scoring ability be affected when he gets older. He'll have to keep scoring a lot.

I imagine he will continue to take penalties and free kicks into his 30's. He has also expressed a desire to move back to Argentina and play. When Romario did this in his 30's he boosted his goal tally. Messi could do the same.

 

[KhaledBarca]

Messi already has 345 goals in his career.

7 games left this season (4 LIGA games with Barcelona + 3 games with ARG vs Guatemala Ecuador and Colombia).

50 goals on average for next 4 seasons for club+country (26-29, peak).
2013/14: 50 goals (age: 26) = 400+.
2014/15: 50 goals (age: 27) = 450+.
2015/16: 50 goals (age: 28) = 500+.
2016/17: 50 goals (age: 29) = 550+.

He can reach 550-600 goals by age of 29!

Target Pele (club+country, senior level): 757 official goals.

 

[ShandyFFM]

did someone read the go**.com article about mou saying to iniesta: no messi no glory and barca would be a complete different team without him as seen in the cl semis?

 

[Yannick03]

50 goals a season is probably even a careful prediction.

 

[KhaledBarca]

50 goals a season is probably even a careful prediction.

yeah, if he stays fit next season. he can reach 80+ like in 2011-12
let's not jinx him

 

[raskolnikov]

A lot will depend on his fitness and joy, if he stays fit and wants to keep playing for years it might be possible to be the best goalscorer.
Lets say he stays at Barca for 7 more years then adds 4/5 in Argentina, thats a lot of years.
But it also possible that he quits at 33 injured or bored with football wanting a more quiet life.

 

[Kerrybai]

Spanish speaking members should enjoy this lecture by Guardiola on Messi during his trip to Argentina.

 

[Luftstalag14]

The most important thing will be the evolution Messi will make when he gets older. I can see him reaching the 600 mark when he's 30 but how will his scoring ability be affected when he gets older. He'll have to keep scoring a lot.

Ditto. When Messi is older and slower, I don't know what is going to happen. I hope he could be like Miroslav Klose, having the acute and deadly sense of where and when he needs to be at in order to score goals, despite the lack of speed. But then again, Klose's work-rate is very high, not sure if Messi will be up to task.

Otherwise, he can transition to become a midfielder as Kerrybai suggested, after all he has the vision and skills necessary to be one. It is his work-rate that is only lacking. That's one of the reasons why I want him to start running.

 

[jiopi]

Ditto. When Messi is older and slower, I don't know what is going to happen. I hope he could be like Miroslav Klose, having the acute and deadly sense of where and when he needs to be at in order to score goals, despite the lack of speed. But then again, Klose's work-rate is very high, not sure if Messi will be up to task.

Otherwise, he can transition to become a midfielder as Kerrybai suggested, after all he has the vision and skills necessary to be one. It is his work-rate that is only lacking. That's one of the reasons why I want him to start running.

Messi only needs to be himself to do that.

 

[fendiking]

Ditto. When Messi is older and slower, I don't know what is going to happen. I hope he could be like Miroslav Klose, having the acute and deadly sense of where and when he needs to be at in order to score goals, despite the lack of speed. But then again, Klose's work-rate is very high, not sure if Messi will be up to task.

Otherwise, he can transition to become a midfielder as Kerrybai suggested, after all he has the vision and skills necessary to be one. It is his work-rate that is only lacking. That's one of the reasons why I want him to start running.

when will this bloody narrative end?!

 

[Xtroverto]

Ditto. When Messi is older and slower, I don't know what is going to happen. I hope he could be like Miroslav Klose, having the acute and deadly sense of where and when he needs to be at in order to score goals, despite the lack of speed. But then again, Klose's work-rate is very high, not sure if Messi will be up to task.

I think Messi could be an excellent poacher in the box, just like Raul or Muller, but that would obviously be a waste of his talent. The last 3-4 seasons he has scored quite a few goals by just being in the right place at the right moment. However, I think he would be a far greater asset to the team as a playmaker rather than a poacher when he is older.

 

[darthvader7888]

I think Messi could be an excellent poacher in the box, just like Raul or Muller, but that would obviously be a waste of his talent. The last 3-4 seasons he has scored quite a few goals by just being in the right place at the right moment. However, I think he would be a far greater asset to the team as a playmaker rather than a poacher when he is older.

I think he'll be in midfield as a playmaker, but he'll still be scoring quite a few goals. A bit like Lampard I suppose.

 

[FCBarca]

Messi arguably hasn't yet peaked and we're left discussing the twilight of his career?

 

[Xtroverto]

Counting just official goals at Senior level (club+country):
- Pele 757 goals in 815 games
- Romario 749g in 972m
- Puskas 709g in 720m
- Gerd Muller 640g in 723m

Messi (345g in 457m) should end his career in Top 5, if he stays fit!

Pele played in Santos that averaged 4 goals per match compared to Barcelona that average 3, that alone give Pele a 20+ goal advantage over Messi every single season.

Romario scored the majority of his goals in the state leagues against Brazilian third, fourth and fifth division teams, it is as if Messi would play in a catalan league against Hospitalet and Badalona

Puskas was the ultimate poacher, he scored something like 50-60% of league goals for his Hungarian teams, for example 50 out of 82 in the 1947-48 season. He was just ridiculous.

Muller was also just a poacher, he didn't even leave the box.