Superstar Lionel Messi dazzled in the Inter Miami vs. Nashville to lead the home club to victory. With 100 more goals than Cristiano Ronaldo, he also became the fastest player in history to reach 830 goals.
Messi surpassed Ronaldo by 100 games to reach 830 goals.
After a streak of injury-related absences, Messi has returned strongly in recent games. Notably, La Pulga has scored four goals for Inter Miami in all competitions in the last four matches.
Messi continued to leave his mark in the last game of the ninth round of MLS 2024 against Nashville, contributing a double goal and an assist for Sergio Busquets’ goal. With a 3-1 victory, Inter Miami maintained its lead in the East standings.
Messi’s career goal total reached 830 with this double. With only 1,056 matches, he became the fastest person to reach this milestone. Although it took 1,156 games, or 100 more games, to reach the 830 goal mark, so did fierce rival Cristiano Ronaldo.
Messi has led Inter Miami in all competitions this season with nine goals and six assists. After only nine official matches for the team, he had already contributed to fourteen goals.
Messi has contributed to goals in each of the first six games of the season, if only MLS goals are taken into account. He is the first individual to achieve this since Joao Plata of Real Salt Lake in 2016.
Since moving to the United States, Messi has come to love Nashville as a rival. La Pulga has contributed 7 goals so far (5 goals and 2 assists) in only 4 games with this squad.
The transfer of Messi to Inter Miami in 2024 has been completed.
The first penalty goal scored by La Pulga at club level in 865 days came from the spot when Messi scored his second goal. The last time he did it, even at the national team level, was 489 days ago, during the 2022 World Cup final.
By contrast, Messi has only scored once from a penalty since the beginning of 2023, compared to Cristiano Ronaldo’s 27.