Messi reaches 900 career goals in Concacaf Champions League match
The Inter Miami forward scored against Nashville on Wednesday, becoming the second player to reach the milestone, trailing only Cristiano Ronaldo's 965 goals.
7:56 PM
Lionel Messi scored his 900th career goal Wednesday during Inter Miami's Concacaf Champions League Round of 16 match against Nashville SC, reaching a milestone that places him second in all-time official goal tallies behind Cristiano Ronaldo.
The 38-year-old Argentine forward received a pass from Reguilón and finished to give Inter Miami a 1-0 lead. The goal marked the ninth time in his career that Messi has reached a round-number milestone in goals.
Messi achieved the 900-goal mark across 1,142 career matches, averaging 0.78 goals per game. He reached his 800th goal nearly three years earlier, on March 23, 2023, in a friendly match for Argentina against Panama.
The breakdown of Messi's goals by club shows his prolific output across multiple teams. At Barcelona, he scored 672 goals in 778 matches, averaging 0.86 goals per game. For Paris Saint-Germain, he recorded 32 goals in 66 matches at an average of 0.43 per game. Since joining Inter Miami, he has scored 81 goals in 95 matches, maintaining an average of 0.85 goals per game. With Argentina's national team, Messi has scored 115 goals in 196 matches, averaging 0.59 goals per game.
Cristiano Ronaldo currently leads the all-time official goals list with 965 goals. Ronaldo reached his 900th goal in his 1,236th career match, meaning Messi achieved the same milestone in 94 fewer appearances. Both players remain the leading active goal scorers in professional football.
Messi's first career goal came on May 1, 2005, against Albacete while playing for Barcelona, with an assist from Ronaldinho. Nearly 21 years and 899 additional goals have followed that debut strike.