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- October 13, 202618°
Messi reaches 916 goals in 2026 World Cup, closing in on 1,000 goal target
Argentine superstar Lionel Messi has come very close to the 1,000 career goal milestone with 916 goals across Barcelona, PSG, Inter Miami, and the national team.
As the qualifying rounds for the 2026 FIFA World Cup continue at full pace, Argentine legend Lionel Messi has reached his 916th career goal, moving one step closer to the 1,000-goal milestone.
Messi's story began on 1 May 2005, when he scored his first goal for Barcelona against Albacete. On that day, he became the club's youngest-ever goalscorer. Since then, exactly 7,717 days have passed.
According to The Athletic, Messi became the oldest player to score a hat-trick in World Cup history when he netted one against Algeria in the 2026 tournament. He then added two more goals in the match against Austria.
Geography of the goals
According to Opta data, Messi's goal distribution across his club and international career is as follows: 672 with Barcelona, 122 with the Argentine national team, 90 with Inter Miami, and 32 with Paris Saint-Germain.
Messi's goals have come from Spain to the United States, from Chile to Japan, and from England to Scotland. However, South Africa, the host of the 2010 World Cup, stands out as the only Mondial host country where Messi has not scored. While Messi failed to find the net in the 2010 tournament, his eternal rival Cristiano Ronaldo broke the record for scoring in six different World Cups within the same week. For Messi to share this record, he would need to make a surprise return for the 2030 edition.
Despite his goalless run in 2010, Messi, with 18 goals (as of the time this article was prepared), is the top scorer in World Cup history, ahead of German Miroslav Klose, who has 16 goals.
No goals in the first minute
Opta's detailed records show that Messi has never scored a goal in the first 60 seconds of any match. However, the Argentine player has managed to score from the 2nd minute to the 90th minute, and also netted a significant number of goals in stoppage time. This statistic reveals that early goals, which go against the flow of a game, are not part of Messi's style.
2012: The peak year
The peak of Messi's goal-scoring empire was in 2012, when he reached 91 goals in a single calendar year. This figure proved that the goal-scoring flow continued even after Pep Guardiola's departure from Barcelona. Messi has scored 61 hat-tricks throughout his career, 9 of which came in 2012 alone.
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