What is the best goal that Lionel Messi has ever scored?

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Lionel Messi, in many people’s eyes the greatest footballer of all time, has scored 860 goals for club and country in a career spanning more than 20 years.

A lot of these goals have been good, a fair few have been spectacular… and a handful have been beyond comprehension.

But which one of his dazzling collection is the very best?

An impossible question to answer? Perhaps. Yet with Messi himself set to name his favourite this week, several of The Athletic’s writers have selected the goal that, in their view, is the greatest the Argentinian has scored.

For Argentina vs Nigeria in June 2018 (World Cup group stage)

O sempre genial, Lionel Messi! 🤩🇦🇷

Contra a Nigeria, o craque da @Argentina anotou um dos gols mais bonitos da @FIFAWorldCup 2018! 🏆#49DaysToGo #AcrediteNoSeuContinente pic.twitter.com/TwnWyaLZHP

— CONMEBOL Copa América™ POR 🇧🇷 (@copaamerica_POR) October 2, 2022

The great players make difficult things look easy. Messi has always gone a bit further than that: he makes them look inevitable, as if no other outcome was ever even on the table. When he plays football, he collapses all possible worlds into his own.

This goal is a perfect encapsulation of his genius. Ever Banega’s pass from midfield is good but fundamentally hopeful. Messi still has an incredible amount of work to do: he must watch the ball drop over his shoulder, then pluck it out of the night sky in such a way that keeps him away from the defender, Kenneth Omeruo, but not so far away that he can’t get a shot off.

It could go wrong in about 16 different ways but doesn’t. The first touch, on his left thigh, cushions and redirects the ball. It lands perfectly on his left foot, his stride gloriously uninterrupted. The finish, on his weaker side, flashes past the goalkeeper.

Messi prepares to shoot against Nigeria (GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images)

It is not a showy goal. It is something much better than that: a masterpiece of precision and economy that only one man could have scored.

Jack Lang

For Barcelona vs Athletic Club in May 2015 (Copa del Rey final)

Am I really only allowed to pick one? It’s impossible. Sometimes we draw a distinction between a great goalscorer and a scorer of great goals. But Messi is a great goalscorer of great goals. So many are technical masterpieces of one type or another. If you were doing a showreel of his top 100 goals, there would be some stunning goals — stunning by any other player’s standards — that came nowhere near.

I love this goal, against Athletic Club in the Copa del Rey final in 2015, because it demonstrates not just the cleverness, the balance and the wonderful technique or indeed the sense of rising to the occasion, but also the quicksilver movement with which he darts one way and the other, finding gaps that don’t even seem to exist.

Picking up the ball just short of the halfway line, with the Athletic defence so well set, there seems no way through. He carries the ball down the touchline and it looks like a dead end, three defenders converging on him, and then suddenly, almost unbelievably, he’s into the penalty area, still going, onto his left foot, bang. I could watch it over and over again. In fact, I just might.

Oliver Kay

For Barcelona vs Manchester United in May 2009 (Champions League final)

Winning a treble had seemed unthinkable. But then came Messi, suspended in the air at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome in front of the bulging eyes of Rio Ferdinand and Edwin van der Sar, before heading the ball into the goal.

Pep Guardiola’s side had already won La Liga and the Copa del Rey in 2008-09 and they had to beat Manchester United in the Champions League final to secure a first treble for the club.

This is far from the most Messi-esque goal and it is certainly not the most beautiful in his collection, but it’s the first one that comes to mind when I think of his great goals. Perhaps because it helped win the Champions League to complete a perfect season.

Yet more than that, seeing such a small player (Messi is 5ft 7in/170cm tall) jumping and scoring with his head against two opponents who towered over him made me think that anything is possible.

As he ran to celebrate the goal, smiling with his boot in his hand, this was the moment when we knew that we were in the presence of generational greatness.

Laia Cervelló Herrero

For Barcelona vs Real Madrid in April 2011 (Champions League semi-finals)

It is the greatest assist of Sergio Busquets’ career.

Busquets stands a little outside the centre circle as Messi plays him a simple pass before racing ahead of where he’s played the ball.

Messi wants a one-two and Busquets obliges, rolling the ball gently into space. It’s the sort of footballing nudge a parent makes when their young child is still learning how to walk.

Messi uses that nudge to show the world he’s mastered how to soar.

He burns past Lassana Diarra, before quickly using his left foot to cut away from Madrid defender Sergio Ramos. A deliberately heavy touch takes him past Raul Albiol. By the time Marcelo has retreated, it’s all over. Messi slides a right-footed effort past Iker Casillas while falling over.

Pay special attention to Diarra at the start of Messi’s dribble. He gets close to making a tackle, only to stop and throw his arms aloft suddenly. Pepe had been sent off earlier in the half, and Madrid players didn’t want to commit further fouls.

I like to pretend the football gods had momentarily stopped Diarra’s momentum, preventing any mortal from meddling in what has become an immortal goal.

Carl Anka

For Barcelona vs Real Madrid in April 2017 (La Liga)

My favourite Messi goal is not one which showcases his unmatched technical ability — his last-gasp Clasico winner in April 2017 is more memorable for revealing his terrific competitive instinct.

The game at the Bernabeu was packed with drama and excitement (as so many Clasicos are) and poised at 2-2 as it entered added time.

Messi had already scored a superb solo goal, yet had also missed two decent chances. Ramos was sent off for a desperate two-footed lunge on him, while Marcelo and Casemiro could also have been red-carded for ugly fouls trying to stop him.

But Messi kept coming back for more, right up to the game’s very last kick. The goal was not technically difficult by the Argentinian’s standards, with Messi arriving onto a Jordi Alba pull-back to sweep in left-footed from 18 yards, as he has done so often over his career.

However, the celebration matched the moment. Messi ripped off his jersey and held it up to show his name to the Bernabeu crowd. Time seemed to stand still as he stared right at the Madrid fans who had tormented him through the previous 90 minutes.

Messi in front of the Madrid fans (OSCAR DEL POZO/AFP via Getty Images)

The iconic image is among the most famous in Clasico history. It did not matter that much that it was his 500th Barcelona goal. More important was that he had proven himself again, and stuck it to Madrid.

Dermot Corrigan

For Barcelona vs Real Zaragoza in March 2010 (La Liga)

⭐ FINALIST: The Best Goal of the Decade ⭐

⚽ Leo #Messi vs Zaragoza

🗓 2009-10 season pic.twitter.com/FaNHTXVW79

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) December 28, 2019

There are many iterations of Messi but the razor-sharp jinky version, where his floppy hair would accentuate every shimmy and feint, is my favourite. All of these are seen in this choice of mine, against Jermaine Pennant’s Real Zaragoza in March 2010.

Interestingly, this game would accentuate the struggles of new Barca forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic. So, if ever a game — or a goal — typified someone saying ‘F*** it, I’ll do it myself’, this was it.

By this point, Messi had already scored once, and would score again to complete a hat-trick, but it was his second goal that was remarkable. First, it was the strength to win the ball, hold off, and then shrug off one defender. Then, within two touches, he skipped past another opponent, who was still sliding as Messi approached his third victim.

In full flow, he also left that defender sprawling, in the splits, after twisting him inside and out, before ruthlessly drilling the ball into the far corner.

Messi shoots following his stunning run against Real Zaragoza (LLUIS GENE/AFP via Getty Images)

“Georgie Best, Diego Maradona, Johan Cruyff, they’re all getting outshone by this incredible little man,” Sky’s commentator Rob Palmer said in amazement.

Funnily enough, had Messi not been fouled in the box in the 91st minute, the goal he was due to score may have got my vote, with the preceding run being in the ‘absolute joke’ category. Ever the willing team-mate, he handed the ball over to Ibrahimovic who scored a much-needed goal from the spot.

Richard Amofa

For Barcelona vs Espanyol in March 2019 (La Liga)

Scoring a Panenka penalty, where the ball is chipped with minimal power, is rare but not unheard of. It requires nerves of steel and perfect execution, but they do happen.

But scoring a Panenka free kick? Only Messi could get away with even attempting to do so.

It’s 0-0 as the clock ticks past 70 minutes at Camp Nou on March 30, 2019, with Barcelona struggling to break down city rivals Espanyol. The home side are awarded a free kick inside the D, about 20 yards from goal.

Messi stands over the ball in the knowledge he has already scored five free kicks in the 2018-19 campaign, including two in the same game against Espanyol the previous December.

Goalkeeper Diego Lopez, who was between the sticks for that earlier fixture, knows he’s got his work cut out again. What he doesn’t know, however, is that the Argentine great eyeing him up from across the turf is about to attempt something so audacious and, quite frankly, ridiculous that in a few seconds he will be flat on his back in the goalmouth wondering what on earth just happened.

Messi half-walks, half-jogs up to the ball before scooping it up into the air with his left foot. It loops over the wall perfectly and the seven players who, a split second earlier, had formed a (hopeful) barrier between Messi and the goal, turn in unison as the ball begins its slow, perfect descent.

Time seems to stand still as Messi’s free kick heads towards the goal (Alex Caparros/Getty Images)

Lopez, who is in the left-hand corner of the goal (from Messi’s perspective), scrambles across the line before diving towards the ball, but it’s far too late — the Barcelona great is wheeling away in celebration before anyone in the Espanyol team can figure out what went on.

Will Jeanes

For Barcelona vs Real Madrid in April 2011 (Champions League semi-final)

There was hardly anything more fascinating in Messi’s Barcelona playing days than witnessing him terrorise Real Madrid.

This is why I’m going back to 2011, and to the first leg of a Champions League semi-final between Barcelona and their great rivals. It was the peak of the Pep Guardiola vs Jose Mourinho era.

Before the game, Guardiola labelled Mourinho the “the fucking boss” in mind games during a press conference, and assured everyone that “my team will respond on the pitch”.

In the 87th minute of the game, Messi received the ball from Busquets, with seven Madrid players behind the ball – and decided he’d have a go alone.

The way he started a solo run, didn’t look back, got away from four Madrid defenders before sending the ball past Iker Casillas was not just a thing of beauty – but a statement that he felt powerful enough to take on every tactic Mourinho had come up with to stop Barcelona.

My brother, a Barcelona season ticket holder for more than a decade, still needs to watch that goal (and that Guardiola press conference) once a year to remind himself of the good old days for Barca fans.

Pol Ballús

For Barcelona vs Bayern Munich in May 2015 (Champions League semi-final)

Most of us will never know what it’s like to play against Messi, but this gave everyone a terrifying insight. At his best, Jerome Boateng was an outstandingly good centre-back, and yet in these few seconds he was entirely helpless.

Yes, many had their fun with Boateng afterwards and he temporarily became a meme, but — I promise you — every player in world football would have felt his pain.

What can you do against that? It was not that Boateng was simply beaten by Messi’s footwork, more that he was befuddled by the entire experience of facing him. It’s often difficult to contextualise how good elite footballers really are, but this gave some clue. If he can do that to him, just imagine…

And nobody ever talks about the finish, which was nonchalantly out of this world, on his wrong foot and made Manuel Neuer look like a Sunday League player.

Sebastian Stafford-Bloor

For Argentina vs Mexico in November 2022 (World Cup group stage)

Everyone remembers the 2022 World Cup as the tournament where Messi cemented his international legacy — and it all started with this fine effort against Mexico to keep Argentina in contention.

After Saudi Arabia’s shock 2-1 win against Lionel Scaloni’s side in their opening group game, there was plenty riding on this match for La Albiceleste. For more than an hour, Argentina looked in real danger of drawing a blank and the prospect of lifting football’s most prestigious trophy in Qatar could not have been further away.

Then, in the 64th minute, Angel Di Maria played a pass into his longtime international team-mate, who was 25 yards out from goal. Messi controlled with his left, set himself and fired a sweet strike beyond the grasp of Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa into the bottom-right corner.

Messi strikes against Mexico (Claudio Villa/Getty Images)

Cue delirious celebrations with the Argentina faithful and a growing sense that this was just meant to be. Argentina went on to win 2-0 and, 27 days later, Messi was back at Lusail Stadium to lift the greatest honour possible for his country.

Tomás Hill López-Menchero

For Barcelona vs Villarreal in November 2010 (La Liga)

For all the long-range efforts and mazy dribbles, what I’ve admired most about Messi is his ability to connect with team-mates.

And for all the superstars he’s played alongside, I most enjoyed his relationship with Pedro Rodriguez, who wasn’t quite an elite attacker individually, but who understood Messi as well as anyone.

This match came during Barcelona’s peak season, 2010-11. It was a very rare game where the opposition, Villarreal, arrived at the Camp Nou and genuinely tried to out-pass Barca.

And the goal itself was a passing move that was complex and yet simple: nothing more than two one-twos — a three-four? — between Messi and Pedro, who played the ‘wall’ part of the ‘wall pass’ entirely literally, first with his left foot, then with his right.

Messi’s three contributions came in entirely different situations. First, he was in front of the opposition midfield, then he was between the midfield and defence, and then he was in behind the defence, and then he finished with a dink, from a tight angle, with his weaker foot. Geometrically, it’s Messi’s best goal.

Michael Cox

For Barcelona vs Getafe in April 2007 (Copa del Rey)

#OnThisDay | April 18, 2007

In the first leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals, the 19-year-old future goat Leo #Messi takes the ball in Barça’s half and blows past Getafe to score one of the most astounding goals ever witnessed. 😳🤯 pic.twitter.com/GmG9mjF1pk

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) April 18, 2020

It’s been a decent cross-section of the Lionel Messi experience so far: several dribbles, a free kick, a vicious finish from a cut-back and, most representative of all, a couple of dinks. After all, five and a half per cent of Messi’s career goals (47 out of 860) have been dinked over a goalkeeper.

This goal, Messi’s greatest, may feel like a stand-out choice to some, a goal a kid would dream of, but the finer details of it say so much about why he has been able to do what he does.

This was just his 21st goal for Barcelona, at the age of 19. Its 14 touches — three with his right, eleven with his left, none of them unnecessary — elicited five separate reactions from the Camp Nou crowd. They are the touches of a genius, clearly, but also a biomechanics PhD waiting to happen. So much of Messi’s technique, power, timing and impudence come from his hyperefficient running style; he is football’s greatest ever minimal-backlift dribbler.

Besides an almost incidental nutmeg, there isn’t a single trick involved in beating Javier Paredes, Nacho, Alexis Ruano, David Belenguer or goalkeeper Luis Garcia. There are no emphatic body-swerves or drops of the shoulder: Messi, simply, had the physical capacity to touch the ball quicker than anybody could think.

The following day, Messi’s face was plastered across the back page of Catalan newspaper Sport. “If you want to disguise yourself as God,” it said, “simply cut this out and put it on.”

(An underrated footnote to this goal: in the second leg, Messi was rested, Getafe won 4-0 and 6-5 on aggregate. But nobody talks about that.)

Adam Hurrey

(Top photo: KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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