The Argentine has been banging in the goals for his country ever since opening his account in 2005

 

Lionel Messi is not just one of the best creators of chances around in the game, but he is lethal in front of goal himself as well.

The Paris Saint-Germain star is Argentina’s all-time leading goal scorer by some distance and holds numerous other goalscoring records, both at club and international level.

For the national team, it all started with a tumultuous debut appearance against Hungary in 2005, with Messi receiving a red card barely a minute after coming off the bench.

That was merely a blip on his journey to greatness, though, and the forward got his first Argentina goal at senior level in a 3-2 friendly loss against Croatia the following year.

That turned out to be start of an impressive goalscoring run and Messi has since been able to celebrate goals more or less wherever he went.

Just how many strikes does the Barcelona legend have to his name, though, and in which competitions did he find the net the most often?

Lionel Messi’s total Argentina goals

Competition

Games

Goals

World Cup

23

9

Copa America

34

13

World Cup qualification

60

28

Finalissima

1

0

International friendlies

51

44

169

94

How many goals has Lionel Messi scored at the World Cup?

Edition

Games

Goals

2006 World Cup

3

1

2010 World Cup

5

0

2014 World Cup

7

4

2018 World Cup

4

1

2022 World Cup

4

3

23

9

Lionel Messi’s Copa America record

Edition

Games

Goals

Copa America 2007

6

2

Copa America 2011

4

0

Copa America 2015

6

1

Copa America Centenario 2016

5

5

Copa America 2019

6

1

Copa America 2021

7

4

34

13

World Cup qualification goals

Edition

Goals

2010 World Cup qualifiers

4

2014 World Cup qualifiers

10

2018 World Cup qualifiers

7

2022 World Cup qualifiers

7

28

Messi in the Finalissima

Edition

Fixture

Goals

2022

Italy 0-3 Argentina

0

Messi’s friendly goals for Argentina

Games

Goals

51

44

Messi Argentina hat-tricks

Match

Goals

Competition

Date

Switzerland 1-3 Argentina

3

Friendly

February 29, 2012

Brazil 3-4 Argentina

3

Friendly

June 9, 2012

Argentina 4-0 Guatemala

3

Friendly

June 14, 2013

Argentina 5-0 Panama

3

Copa America Centenario

June 10, 2016

Ecuador 1-3 Argentina

3

World Cup qualifiers

October 10, 2017

Argentina 4-0 Haiti

3

Friendly

May 29, 2018

Argentina 3-0 Bolivia

3

World Cup qualifiers

September 9, 2021

Argentina 5-0 Estonia

5

Friendly

June 5, 2022

Messi’s favourite opponents

Team

Goals

Bolivia

8

Ecuador

6

Uruguay

6

Brazil

5

Chile

5

Estonia

5

Paraguay

5

Venezuela

5

Mexico4

Colombia

3

Guatemala

3

Haiti

3

Nigeria

3

Panama

3

Switzerland

3

*Data accurate as of December 4

 

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