On Sunday, 13 January 2019, one of the greatest footballer in the world, Lionel Messi created LaLiga history after becoming the first player to score 400 goals in the competitions’ long history.
Messi is already the all-time top goal scorer in LaLiga. He surpassed the previous record of 251 goals scored by Athletic Bilbao great Telmo Zarra on 22 November 2014. Earlier in 2014, Messi scored a hattrick against Sevilla FC which made him the topper of the list of most goals scored in LaLiga.
The 31-year-old reached his milestone goal after 53 minutes in Sunday’s game against Eibar when he doubled the lead. Barcelona’s fellow teammate Luis Suarez assisted the milestone goal for Messi. The Uruguayan has also assisted the most number of goals (29) for Messi’s 400 than anyone else.
That is how Messi scored his 400th goal, a left-foot stunner.
In LaLiga history, Lionel Messi is now 89 goals ahead than second-placed Cristiano Ronaldo who now plays in Serie A for Juventus.
List of all-time top goal scorers in LaLiga:
Rank |
Player |
Years |
Goals |
Apps |
Ratio |
1 | Lionel Messi | 2004– | 400 | 435 | 0.92 |
2 | Cristiano Ronaldo | 2009–2018 | 311 | 292 | 1.07 |
3 | Telmo Zarra | 1940–1955 | 251 | 278 | 0.9 |
4 | Hugo Sánchez | 1981–1994 | 234 | 347 | 0.67 |
5 | Raúl | 1994–2010 | 228 | 550 | 0.41 |
Messi is the only player who is currently active in LaLiga among the top 5. He is followed by Aritz Aduriz(157) and Karim Benzema(134) in the currently active players.
The Argentine international has had a remarkable impact on Spanish football since making his debut in 2004-05 campaign. Let’s take a look where Messi stands among top goal scorers across all European Leagues.
RANK |
PLAYER |
GOALS |
PLAYED FOR TEAMS |
1 | Josef Bican | 518 | Austria 18, Czechoslovakia 500 (1931–55) |
2 | Ferenc Puskas | 517 | Spain 159, Hungary 358 (1943–66) |
3 | Imre Schlosser | 417 | Hungary 411, Austria 6 (1905–28) |
4 | Cristiano Ronaldo | 412 | Portugal 3, England 84, Spain 311, Italy 14 (2002–present) |
5 | Jimmy McGrory | 410 | Scotland 410 |
6 | Uwe Seeler | 406 | Germany 404, Ireland 2 (1953 to 1972) |
7 | Lionel Messi | 400 | Spain 400, (2004-present) |
Imre Schlosser, Cristiano Ronaldo, Jimmy McGrory and Uwe Seeler are not more than 20 goals ahead than Lionel Messi, but Messi is still some way behind Josef Bican and Ferenc Puskas, who both scored 500 league goals.