Goal Map Shows Where Lionel Messi Takes First Touch For All His Goals

An analyst has put together a goal map showing where Lionel Messi first touched the ball for every single one of his 648 goals for Barcelona.

It's just three weeks ago that Messi broke Pele's record of scoring the most goals for one club, not that Santos agree, as the six time Ballon d'Or winner grabbed his 644th goal for the Catalan giants.

The 33-year-old's goal against Real Valladolid was his latest as his form continues to get somewhere close to its best once again.

On the weekend he scored two more, including a beauty of a free kick, leading to a victory for his side over Granada to take him to 648 goals for the club.

Analyst Marius Fisher has plotted where Messi took his first touch in each goal, showing where he dribbled from and even his many free kicks are on the graph.

How many more goals Messi actually manages to score for the La Liga giants remains to be seen, with a big possibility his time at the Nou Camp is nearly over.

He tried to get a move away from the club in the summer but when it was ruled his contract clause to leave for free had already ended for the year he decided to stay put.

With his contract actually expiring at the end of the season there's a good chance he could leave for free.

Manchester City and PSG are the favourites to bring Barca's all time top scorer to their clubs, the the French side including a clause that would eventually see the Argentina star move to MLS.

Speaking recently about how he went about trying to leave in the summer, sending an official document saying he wanted to go, Messi said, "I spent the whole year telling [former president Josep] Bartomeu that I wanted to leave Barcelona.

"But the president always said 'No'. The burofax was a way to make it official. I thought I had completed a cycle. I needed a change. I wanted to go, Barca cycle was over.

"My kids were saying that they didn't want to leave, but I felt it was the best for me. I felt like a cycle was over."

Now everyone is waiting to see if Messi will stay or go.

Topics: Football News, Barcelona, Lionel Messi, La Liga

Ryan Sidle

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