Messi equals Beckham's free kick record

In the first match of the 2026 World Cup qualifier against Ecuador in Buenos Aires, Messi scored the only goal of the game in the 78th minute, with a free kick from about 20 meters away. He rose with Beckham to fifth in the list of players with the most goals scored, behind Juninho, Pele, Victor Legrottaglie and Ronaldinho. In which, Messi is only one goal away from third place.

Beckham is considered a free kick expert, as he scores the most goals in Europe from such situations. The former England captain also co-owns Inter Miami Club in MLS - where Messi is playing.

Former Brazilian midfielder Juninho is considered the "King of free kicks", with 77 goals in his career, and "King of football" Pele is second with 70 goals. Messi needs to score 13 more goals to break Juninho's record. And with a performance of 5 goals a year for the past 12 years, the 36-year-old superstar is likely to set a new record before hanging up his boots.

In 2023, Messi scored five goals from free kicks, or an average of every 7.4 matches to score one goal. His best free kick performance was in 2018 with 10 goals, and his best performance then was 5.4 goals per game.

Since 2018, Messi has scored 31 goals from a penalty kick, equal to the number of penalty goals scored in the same period. Another free kick specialist, Cristiano Ronaldo, only scored 7 penalty kicks during this period, but had 56 penalty goals. Messi has also not scored any penalty goals in 2023 because he always lets his teammates shoot, and the Portuguese superstar has scored 9 goals from similar situations this year.

Before 2012, Messi only scored four free kick goals, because he was not responsible for taking the main free kick at Barca or the Argentina team. But since scoring 7 goals in 2012, Messi started to explode. Meanwhile, Ronaldo, despite being ninth on the free kick list with 60 goals, has not scored more than 4 goals per year in the past decade.

Messi has also just surpassed Ronaldo in the number of times he has scored a goal at the national team level. The Argentine captain has scored 104 goals and assisted 53 times in 176 matches, meaning he has contributed to 157 goals. The Portuguese striker scored 123 goals, assisted 33 times in 200 matches, and contributed to 156 goals.

Messi also equaled Luis Suarez's record of 29 goals in South America's World Cup qualifiers, and the Uruguayan striker did not jump up when he was not called up to the team this time.

Messi has the opportunity to improve the above achievements when Argentina plays a guest on Bolivia's field in La Paz on the morning of September 13, Hanoi time.