How long it will take Lionel Messi to reach 900 career goals

Cristiano Ronaldo recently scored his landmark 900th career goal, but how long will it take Messi to reach that same tally? We’ve taken a look into the stats.

Given Ronaldo is two years older than Messi, he started his professional career slightly earlier than his Argentine counterpart and he’s been slightly ahead in the goal records since.

However, like Ronaldo, Messi is someone who is used to breaking records and once he returns to full fitness, we’re sure that it won’t be long until he’s knocking them in on a regular basis.

With Messi now playing in MLS, he’s been scoring at a far greater rate compared to his time at PSG. However, injuries have hampered his game time of late.

The 37-year-old has been nursing a ligament injury since July and he’s now being eased back into the frame with Inter Miami.

In total, Messi has scored 838 career goals up until this point. He’s scored 672 for Barcelona, 32 for PSG, 25 for Inter Miami and 109 for Argentina.

Interestingly, Messi has been scoring at a greater rate while at Inter Miami compared to his time with PSG and Barcelona. Of course, the standard of competition isn’t quite the same, but it’s still impressive given he’s now 37 years old.

While he doesn’t often speak about his individual accolades, he’ll surely have his eyes set on reaching 900 goals after Ronaldo recently achieved the landmark figure.

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We’ve taken a closer look at Messi’s scoring numbers and have worked out how long it will realistically take him to score 900 goals.

– As of writing, Messi has scored 840 goals in 1,070 games. That means he needs to score 60 goals in order to reach the 900-goal landmark.

– Throughout his career, he has averaged a goal every 104.6 minutes. If he continues at that pace, it will take him 70 matches to score the remaining 60 goals that he needs.

– However, since joining Inter Miami, Messi has been scoring at a far superior rate. In an Inter Miami shirt, Messi has scored 27 goals in 30 appearances, averaging a goal every 90.4 minutes.

– If the Argentine forward can maintain that pace, it will take him just 61 games to reach the 900-goal landmark.

– At his most prolific during 2010-11, he scored at a freakishly prolific rate, averaging a goal every 72 minutes. If he somehow gets back to that sort of standard, you can expect Messi to hit 900 goals in his next 48 matches, although that would take some doing.

– The biggest obstacle that Messi faces right now is staying fit for a consistent run of games. Since joining Inter Miami, he’s already missed 25 games through injury which has caused his scoring record to somewhat stagnate.

– If he manages to regain his fitness and he plays on a regular basis for Inter Miami, it seems more than likely that he will hit the 900-goal landmark at some stage next season.