Fastest players to 50 MLS goals: Lionel Messi shatters record of legendary former team-mate
Lionel Messi has passed fellow legend Zlatan Ibrahimovic to break yet another record in his third separate season since joining MLS side Inter Miami in 2023.
Messi’s MLS records include being the only player to register at least 36 goal contributions in multiple seasons, and becoming only the second player to lead the league in both goals and assists.
When he scored a hat-trick in the the last game of the regular season – a 5-2 victory over Nashville – Messi set another record.
That brought up his 50th MLS goal, and made him the quickest player in history to that feat.
As a result, the top three now reads as below.
1. Lionel Messi
Messi surpassed Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Josef Martinez by one game to take the MLS record of scoring 50 goals in the least time.
The Argentine superstar brought up the half-century in 53 games.
It is all the more impressive given he is not a central striker, rather a right-winger, who also has 28 MLS assists to his name, bringing his total tally for direct goal contributions to 78 in 53 games.
=2. Zlatan Ibrahimovic
In only 58 games in all in the MLS, Ibrahimovic scored a total of 53 goals, and he brought up his 50th in his 54th game.
He had something of a slow start, with only three goals in his first eight MLS games for LA Galaxy.
But he had multiple five-game scoring streaks, some of which saw him score more than once, to race towards what was then the record.
=2. Josef Martinez
Martinez has spent the majority of his career in the MLS, and is currently sitting on 130 goals from 214 games.
It took him just 54 games to score his first 50 goals, and he kicked off his spell with Atalanta by scoring five goals in his first three games.
Martinez once went on a run of scoring eight goals in four games, which included back-to-back hat-tricks.
His 50th goal came right at the end of his second campaign, in which he went on a nine-game scoring streak, scoring 14 goals in those games.
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