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| WONDER BOY |
In the end, it was against Sevilla. By cruising past Telmo Zarra's 251-goal record, Lionel Messi has declared himself the highest goalscorer in la Liga in all its history.
In a little more than 10 years after making his debut at Barcelona, Messi has managed to better Zarra's record that took the mythical player 17 years to achieve. That said, Zarra hung up his boots with an average strike-rate that 'La Pulga' still has to better.
Another achievement that Messi has to equal is that of putting the ball in the back of the net six times in just the one match - something that Zarra acheived in 1950 against Lleida. The Barça forward's record while playing at Barça is four, which he has managed to do on three occasions.
Something that Messi beat Zarra at from an early age, was just that – scoring his first league goal at an early age. 17, to be precise, while Zarra broke his own personal duck at the age of 19.
What is quite clear is that the Messi goal-machine is showing no signs of stalling just yet. At 27, the pint-sized Argentine still has a lot of football in his boots and there doesn't seem anyone around that might give him a run for his money as far as this record is concerned. The player currently plying his trade in la Liga that comes near the Argentine is Cristiano Ronaldo, but he hasn't even reached the 200-goal mark yet. Messi would have to take his foot of the gas considerably to allow the Portuguese to catch up.
