Lionel Messi scored in Barcelona’s 3-1 win over Eibar to take his La Liga goal tally to 400, becoming the first player in the competition’s history to hit the milestone.
The 31-year-old is La Liga’s all-time top goalscorer by some distance, having surpassed the previous record of 251, held for 59 years by Athletic Bilbao great Telmo Zarra, in November 2014.
The goal came after 53 minutes as he doubled Barca’s lead against Eibar with a typically clinical finish with his left foot.
The Argentina international is now 89 goals ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo, and the only other active La Liga players in the division’s top 30 goalscorers of all time are Aritz Aduriz and Karim Benzema.
Messi has just scored his 400th goal for @FCBarcelona in @LaLigaEN. It would be an astonishing statistic if he were just a goal scorer, but he’s so much more than that. We’re blessed to live in his time. ???
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) January 13, 2019
Messi is one of only seven players to have scored 400 goals in Europe’s top leagues, alongside Imre Schlosser, Jimmy McGrory, Ronaldo and Uwe Seeler, but he is still some way behind Josef Bican and Ferenc Puskas, who both hit 500 league goals.
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The first player in HISTORY to score 4⃣0⃣0⃣ goals in #LaLigaSantander! ?♂️#BarçaEibar #Messi pic.twitter.com/90Ger62R1F
— LaLiga (@LaLigaEN) January 13, 2019