Lionel Messi has officially broken Pele's record for most goals and assists ever
Messi was involved in four of Paris Saint-Germain's goals against Maccabi Haifa on Tuesday evening.
Lionel Messi broke Pele's record for most goals and assists in football history in Paris Saint-Germain's 7-2 victory over Maccabi Haifa.
The seven-time Ballon d'Or winner scored twice and registered two assists as PSG sealed qualification from Champions League Group H.
It means Messi has now registered an astonishing 1,127 goal involvements in his legendary career.
His assist for Carlos Soler took him ahead of Pele, who recorded 1,126 official goal involvements per OneFootball.
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The 35-year-old is also the oldest player to register two assists and two goals in a single Champions League game.
Messi's also extending another record over bitter rival Cristiano Ronaldo. This term, he's taken his Champions League group stage total to 85 goals.
That's 12 ahead of Ronaldo, who is not in the competition this season after finishing sixth with Manchester United in 21/22.
Their failure to qualify for the Champions League and his obsession with catching up to Messi saw Ronaldo hand in a transfer request during the summer.
No offers arrived, however, and he's currently playing Europa League football with United.
Ronaldo has managed to preserve his record of most Champions League hat-tricks. Messi is currently on eight, but one more goal at the Parc des Princes would've seen him overtake his longtime rival.
Messi opened the scoring against Maccabi with an an outrageous outside-of-the-boot finish, straight out of FIFA 23. It whipped away from goalkeeper Josh Cohen stayed rooted to the spot.
Kylian Mbappe and Neymar put PSG 3-0 up in the first half before Abdoulaye Seck made it 3-1. Messi hadn't had his fill yet and scored from outside the box just before halftime to make it 4-1.
PSG blew the visitors away in the second half through Mbappe once again, Sean Goldberg's own goal and Soler's first for the club.
Seck managed to grab his second of the game amid all that but it was nothing less than a consolation.
PSG manager Christophe Galtier was delighted with his side's performance, pointing out how happy they were on the pitch together.
He told reporters: "I saw the players enjoy themselves, and that's very important
"I had to think about how our fantastic three players up front could express themselves as best as possible and that the system could be very important."
Topics: Lionel Messi, Pele, Paris Saint-Germain, Champions League
Daniel Marland