Messi surpasses 60 free kicks

In the fifth minute of the second half of the match against Lille in the 24th round of Ligue 1, Messi took a free kick from about 20 meters away, sending the ball to the far corner and hitting the column into the net, helping PSG win 4-3. This was his 61st goal from a free-kick in his career, and the eighth player to do so, after Juninho, Pele, Victor Legrottaglie, Ronaldinho, David Beckham, Diego Maradona and Zico. However, the 36-year-old superstar is still 16 goals away from Juninho's record.

Since January 2016, Messi has scored 27 goals from free kicks, the most in Europe's top five leagues. He is far ahead of second-placed midfielder James Ward-Prowse with 17 goals for Southampton. Also, no other player has hit the 10-goal mark at this stage.

Since the 2017-2018 season, Messi has also scored 40 goals from outside the box in Europe's top five leagues, twice as many as second-place Kevin de Bruyne. In which, Messi scored 22 goals from the free kick this time, also six goals behind the player behind Ward-Prowse.

If only the national leagues in his career, Messi has scored 41 goals from 450 free kicks, reaching a rate of 9.1%. This rate of another expert like Cristiano Ronaldo is only 6.2%, with 33 goals from 532 free kicks. The Portuguese superstar scored a total of 58 goals from free kicks in his career. But in the national leagues since the 2017-2018 season, CR7 has only scored twice from 79 free kicks.

By the end of 2011, Messi had only scored four goals from the free kick, when Xavi mainly received this task at Barca. Since 2012, the Argentina captain has scored 57 goals from free kicks. Messi's peak was in 2018, when he scored 10 goals.

"Messi is the best free kick in the world," coach Lille Paulo Fonseca said after the match on February 19. "I was not surprised when he scored. We dominated PSG but the difference between the two teams lies in Messi and Kylian Mbappe."