La Liga: Lionel Messi Becomes First Player To Score 400 Goals In One Of Europe’s Big Five Leagues (Photos & Video)

Alan Duffy

13th, January 2019

7 Comments

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Lionel Messi netted his 400th La Liga goal in Barcelona’s victory over Eibar at the Nou Camp on Sunday.

Already, the Spanish top-flight’s top-scorer, Messi netted his 400th goal in the competition as Barca won 3-0 to regain their five-point lead at the top of the table.

The goal saw the Argentine superstar become the first player ever to hit 400 goals in one of the Europe’s big five leagues, hitting the landmark in his 435th game in La Liga.

Luis Suarez had opened the scoring for Barcelona, before Messi, with his first shot of the game, fired into the bottom corner on 53 minutes to reach the incredible milestone.

Suarez would score again to secure a 3-0 win for the hosts which sees them stay comfortably ahead at the top of the La Liga table.

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As for the 31-year-old Messi, he becomes the second player to net 400 goals across Europe’s big five leagues, following in the footsteps of Cristiano Ronaldo, who has bagged 409 goals in 507 appearances combined in the Premier League, La Liga and Serie A.

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Utterly incredible figures!

Posted in Barcelona, La Liga, Photos, Videos

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7 Comments

  1. Paul says:

    Title reads Messi is first….
    Article says Ronaldo has achieved this feat first…

    • Alan Duffy says:

      Messi is the first to do it in one league (La Liga), as stated in the article. Ronaldo was the first to hit 400 goals across Europe’s big five leagues (ie a combination of different leagues), as stated in the article.

      • Paul says:

        The use of the word “one” in the title indicates that it includes goals scored across europe’s big five leagues, and not associated to “one single” domestic league.

        “LIONEL MESSI BECOMES FIRST PLAYER TO SCORE 400 GOALS IN LA LIGA”

        “LIONEL MESSI BECOMES SECOND PLAYER TO SCORE 400 GOALS IN ONE OF EUROPE’S BIG FIVE LEAGUES”

        • Nuno says:

          No, saying “one” means one. As in scoring all goals in one league alone. Otherwise it’s “among the Europe’s big five leagues” (though agree with below that considering France a big league is a bit of a stretch).

  2. Comfy Chair says:

    “…Messi, he becomes the second player to net 400 goals across Europe’s big five leagues”

    Sort of contradicts the headline, doesn’t it???

  3. maria says:

    Why do you talk about a big five? France has had one CL winner and no other finalists (and no winners of the European Cup). Portugal has had a winner, Netherlands a winner and a runner up with both countries numerous winners of the European Cup.

    Most of the French WC team don’t play in Le Ligue either. Other than PSG (only formed in 1970) spending a lot of money, how is the French league ‘Big’?

  4. Eeny says:

    Alan is taking a lot of flak for this article and I can’t understand why.

    He makes it clear that Messi is the first to score 400 goals in ONE of the big 5 leagues (La Liga, Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1: https://www.sportskeeda.com/football/ranking-top-5-leagues-europe-last-decade). Let’s not kid ourselves by suggesting that Primeira Liga or Eredivisie are at the same level as the aforementioned leagues. Whether or not you consider France to be worthy of inclusion in the “Big 5” is your own personal opinion.

    Ronaldo was the first to score 400 career goals across those 5 leagues.

    Perhaps a clearer headline would have been “Lionel Messi becomes first player to score 400 La Liga goals”, but it wasn’t a huge leap of logic to figure out Messi’s achievement after reading beyond the headline.

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