Lionel Messi Reaches 400 Career Goals, Manager Compares Him To Magician

Lionel Messi scored his 400th and 401st career goals over the weekend as Barcelona sauntered to a 6-0 home victory against Granada on Saturday.

The 27-year-old has scored each of his efforts either for Barcelona or Argentina, and the breakdown of the facts shows that Messi has scored 359 times for Barcelona and 42 for Argentina. He has managed to score these goals in 506 games since he made his debut back in 2004.

“It’s like Messi was touched by a magic wand,” Barcelona’s manager, Luis Enrique, opined on Saturday. “I don’t think if we added together the goals we have scored on the playground it would reach 400,” he said to the gathered journalists in his post-match press conference.

Messi also took to his Facebook page to thank everyone who has helped him in his career, and he admitted that he never thought he would reach this total.

“I never imagined I could achieve anything like this in my career,” he wrote. “Thanks for all the congratulations on scoring 400 goals with FC Barcelona and the Argentinian National Team. I’ll continue working hard to reach more targets. A big hug to all!”

Messi’s goals have led Barcelona to an unprecedented level of success over the last few years. Since 2004, the side have won 21 trophies, including six La Ligas and three Champions Leagues. He has also been rewarded with a bevy of personal honors. Between 2009 and 2012, he even won four consecutive Ballon d’Ors, which is generally given to the world’s best player from the previous year.

However Messi wasn’t Barcelona’s star player against Granada on Saturday evening. Neymar was the one who inspired the Spanish side to their impressive victory, as he notched a hat-trick before Messi scored two. Croatia midfielder Ivan Rakitic joined the list of goal-scorers too.

Barcelona are now on-top of La Liga, ahead of Valencia and Atletico Madrid, who are two points further behind. Luis Enrique, who was appointed as Barcelona manager in the summer after Tata Martino’s trophy-less campaign last season, and the former midfielder, who played over 300 times for the club between 1996 and 2004, has inspired a renaissance in the team.

They have now scored 16 goals in six La Liga matches, and they have won all but one of their games. The only points that they’ve dropped came against Malaga in mid-week, when they drew nil-nil. Most alarmingly for other Spanish teams though is that Luis Suarez, who Barcelona bought from Liverpool in the summer, still hasn’t made his debut.

[Image via Doggy Buzz]