Chris WrightJan 1, 2026, 04:00 AM ET
Lionel Messi is never far from breaking his next record or hitting his next landmark, and he enters 2026 on the verge of yet another massive milestone in his incredible career: his 900th goal.
The eight-time Ballon d'Or winner is poised on 896 goals in his senior career for Argentina, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and current club Inter Miami following his final match of 2025: Miami's MLS Cup triumph over the Vancouver Whitecaps on Dec. 5.
The 2026 MLS season doesn't kick off until Feb. 21, and Argentina are not in action again until they play Spain in the Finalissima in Doha on March 27. Therefore, we'll have to wait a little while before Messi can get the four goals he needs to hit goal No. 900, but it is likely to come soon enough once the 38-year-old resumes competitive action.
Right now, Messi's longtime rival Cristiano Ronaldo is the only active player to have scored over 900 professional career goals, having achieved the feat in September 2024. Given that the active player with the next-highest goal total is Robert Lewandowski with 685, it might be some while before the twin titans of modern football are joined in the 900 club by anyone else.
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Messi's goal-scoring odyssey began way back in May 2005, when the teenage sensation emerged from the bench for the final two minutes of Barcelona's league game against Albacete and capped off a 2-0 victory with his first goal in professional football.
Even though expectations were high for Messi all the way through his development, no one could have predicted the incredible level of success that would follow that first goal at Camp Nou. Yet here we all are 21 years later, with Messi still scoring goals at such a rate that there is no telling how much more he could achieve.
Much has rightly been made about Ronaldo's quest to reach an undisputed career tally of 1,000 goals, with the 40-year-old now within 50 strikes of that total. But as Messi nears 900, could he also have that four-figure total in his sights? And, being almost 2½ years younger than Ronaldo, could he yet retire with more goals to his name than the Portugal superstar?
Messi's goals by team
It shouldn't come as much surprise to learn that most of Messi's goals were scored at the club where he enjoyed the majority of his career and his peak years: Barcelona. The 5-foot-7 forward scored 672 goals in 778 games for the Catalan giants across 17 seasons -- which accounts for 75% of his career tally.
Messi then scored 32 goals in 75 games during his two-year stint with PSG before adding another 77 goals in 88 games to date for Inter Miami.
On the international front, Messi has a running tally of 115 goals in 196 games for Argentina. Though none were bigger than the two goals he scored (plus a penalty in the shootout) in the 2022 FIFA World Cup final victory over France.
Barcelona: 672 goals in 778 games
Paris Saint-Germain: 32 goals in 75 games
Inter Miami: 77 goals in 88 games
Argentina: 115 goals in 196 games
Total: 896 goals in 1,137 games
Messi's goals per season
Aged 17, Messi debuted for the Barcelona senior side in 2004-05 under head coach Frank Rijkaard and scored just one goal in nine games in all competitions -- his first professional career goal, when Ronaldinho set him up to open his account against Albacete in May 2005.
He followed up with his first senior international goal for Argentina in March 2006, in a friendly defeat to Croatia. And with goals for club and country combined, Messi reached double figures in his sophomore campaign (10 goals in 2005-06) and hasn't looked back, having done likewise in each of the subsequent 20 seasons of his professional career.
Messi's highest single-season return came in 2011-12, when he amassed a dizzying 82 goals for club and country. It was also the same season that Messi notched his 234th goal in 314 games for Barça to become the club's top career goal scorer at the age of 24, seizing the mantle from César Rodriguez, hero of the side from the 1940s and '50s. The decisive strike proved to be Messi's second goal of a hat trick he scored in a 5-3 win over Granada in March 2012.
Messi had to wait until November of the 2014-15 campaign to become LaLiga's top career scorer when another hat trick, this time against Sevilla, saw him reach 253 goals in 289 Spanish league games. He overtook another Barça great, Telmo Zarra, whose individual record of 251 goals in LaLiga had stood since 1955. Messi went on to score 66 goals in total that season.
To sum up his ludicrously prolific goal-scoring consistency, during the 22 seasons that Messi has spent as a professional footballer he has passed the 80-goal mark once, the 60-goal mark three times, the 50-goal mark eight times and the 40-goal mark on 14 occasions. During his monumental heyday, he also scored at least 30 goals for club and country for 13 consecutive campaigns between 2008-09 and 2020-21, the end of which coincided with him leaving Barcelona for PSG.
Following that emotional exit, Messi's goal return faltered in Paris, where his first season (2021-22) produced a "mere" 22 goals. That said, he did deliver 37 goals in his second term (2022-23). He didn't spend too long in France, but he did manage to win two Ligue 1 titles and the Trophée des Champions, as well as surpassing Ronaldo's tally of 701 goals to become the top career goal scorer in European club football with a goal against Nice in April 2023.
Messi's many records and milestones
Messi refuses to hang around in his relentless pursuit of career milestones. He became Barcelona's top career scorer in 2011-12, just eight seasons into his senior career, by rattling away 234 goals in his first 314 games for the club. He then quickly took the LaLiga record when he scored that 253rd goal in Spanish league appearances.
We shouldn't gloss over the fact that he also holds a world record for most goals scored in a single calendar year, having stormed to 91 in 69 games in 2012. Messi scored 79 goals for Barça and 12 for Argentina to surpass the previous annual record of 85, which had been held by Bayern Munich legend Gerd Müller since 1972.
Messi scored the 500th goal of his club and international career in April 2016 in a shock 2-1 home defeat for Barcelona against Valencia. The forward did so in his 632nd game, having amassed 450 goals in 525 games for Barça and 50 goals in 107 caps for Argentina at the time.
He is also the fastest player on record to score 100 goals in the Champions League after taking just 123 games to do so, with the crucial strike coming against Chelsea in March 2018 -- also making him the youngest player to reach a century in the competition at 30 years and 263 days.
In that same quarterfinal second leg, Messi also scored the quickest goal of his career, when he bagged his 99th UCL goal with 128 seconds on the clock at Camp Nou.
Even as he pushes on toward his 40s, Messi is still eating up milestones in MLS. After guiding Inter Miami to their first-ever trophy, the 2023 Leagues Cup, he then scored 23 goals in 25 games in 2024 to take over as Inter Miami's top career scorer and drive them to claim the Supporters' Shield.
The 2025 season saw Messi ramp it up again, scoring 29 goals in 28 regular-season games en route to winning the MLS Golden Boot. He also became the fastest player to reach 50 goals in MLS history, taking 53 games to beat the previous record shared by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Josef Martínez (54 games). In all, Messi scored 43 goals in 49 games for Inter Miami in 2025.
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When could Messi hit 1,000 goals?
He still has more than 100 goals to go until he reaches the 1,000 milestone, but there's every chance Messi will get there.
At 38, he still has three years to run on his Inter Miami contract after signing an extension in October 2025 that is due to run until the conclusion of the 2028 MLS season, when Messi will be 41.
Messi has averaged 36 goals a season for club and country since moving to MLS in July 2023 (77 for Miami, 12 for Argentina). However, with uncertainty over how much longer he will continue to play for Argentina -- speaking to ESPN last month, he would not confirm that he will play at the 2026 World Cup -- that rate would likely drop if he is no longer playing international games.
Still, should he continue to average 36 goals per season for Miami beyond the World Cup next summer, Messi would be on course to score his 1,000th career goal at some point toward the end of the 2028 season, the final year of his current contract.
Of course, this is an incredibly basic calculation that doesn't take into account any fluctuations in form or fitness -- but we employed the same method to calculate if/when Ronaldo would reach his 1,000th career goal, and we haven't been too wide of the mark regarding his progress toward that target thus far.
Could he retire with more goals than Ronaldo?
Ronaldo, who currently has 957 career goals in 1,298 games for club and country, turns 41 on Feb. 5.
Messi, who has 896 goals in 1,137 games at senior level, turns 39 on June 24.
If Ronaldo dramatically announced his retirement on New Year's Day 2026 and Messi played on for two further seasons for club and country until the age of 40, while successfully maintaining his average goal return since moving to the U.S. of 36 goals per season, the latter would potentially surpass his rival's tally of 957 in mid-2027.
In that scenario, Messi could end his career with a total of 968. Again, that's a ballpark calculation, but it gives an indication of how time is very much on Messi's side as the younger man of the two rivals.
Both players have unquestionably defined the era in which they have played, winning the Ballon d'Or a combined 13 times between Ronaldo's first in 2008 and Messi's eighth in 2023. But, even now, both are still strengthening their respective claims to be declared the greatest of all time.
