- Emerges South American men’s top scorer
- Cries tears of joy with Argentina fans
Argentine captain, Lionel Messi scored his 79th international goal on Thursday night to break the South American men’s record held by Brazilian soccer idol, Pele.
The development now puts the PSG new signing standing alone atop CONMEBOL’s men’s all-time goalscoring chart.
During his international career, Pele won three FIFA World Cups: 1958, 1962 and 1970, the only player to do so. He is the all-time leading goalscorer for Brazil with 77 goals in 92 games. At club level he is Santos’ all-time top goalscorer with 643 goals from 659 games
In achieving the feat, Messi banged all three goals in Argentina’s World Cup qualifying win over Bolivia in Buenos Aires, giving him two more than the legendary Brazilian striker.
Only Brazilian female stars, Marta (109) and Cristiane (96) have scored more overall international goals than the Argentina icon now as he claimed his spot as the continent’s top men’s goals merchant.
Celebration time
“I really wanted to be able to enjoy it,” Messi said after the match, adding; “I waited a long time for this, I looked for it and I dreamed of it.
It’s a unique moment for the way it happened after so much waiting. There was no better way to celebrate this than to be here. My mother, my brothers are in the stands… They suffered a lot and today, they are here celebrating. I’m very happy.”
With the three goals on Thursday, Messi also surpassed former team-mate and long time friend Luis Suarez to become the leading scorer in CONMEBOL’s men’s World Cup qualifying.
Career Goals
He now has 26 career goals in qualifying, while the hat-trick also gives him eight career goals against Bolivia in 11 games, making them the opponent the Argentine has been most prolific against.
Messi has been Argentina’s most prolific scorer since 2016, when he surpassed Gabriel Batistuta (54 goals).
The Argentine helped lead his country to the Copa America title this summer, his first piece of major senior international silverware with his country. – With Goal.com
