Lionel Messi has recorded his best ever assist tally in a single season in La Liga during Barcelona’s 4-1 defeat of Villarreal at the Estadio de la Cerámica.
The Barcelona captain set up French striker Antoine Griezmann for the team’s third goal against Villarreal, and in the process, logged his 19th assist for the season, a new career high for the Argentine playmaker.
Barcelona is battling with Real Madrid for the top spot in the Spanish top-flight soccer competition’s standings, with Real Madrid currently leading by just four points with four remaining matches left to be played for the respective clubs.
To keep up with the league leader, Lionel Messi and his Catalan teammates now face a daunting task ahead of them in the weeks to come.
A new record
Since the 2007-2008 season of La Liga, Messi has achieved impressive numbers when it comes to total assists in a season.
#Messi, assists/season, @LaLigaEN
05-06 2️⃣
06-07 2️⃣
07-08 1️⃣2️⃣
08-09 1️⃣1️⃣
09-10 1️⃣0️⃣
10-11 1️⃣8️⃣
11-12 1️⃣6️⃣
12-13 1️⃣2️⃣
13-14 1️⃣1️⃣
14-15 1️⃣8️⃣
15-16 1️⃣6️⃣
16-17 9️⃣
17-18 1️⃣2️⃣
18-19 1️⃣3️⃣
19-20 1️⃣9️⃣ 🔝+🐐 pic.twitter.com/nfSUmz4h50— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) July 5, 2020
Before this year, the striker’s best seasons in terms of assists were in 2010-2011 as well as in 2014-2015, wherein he logged 18 assists for Barcelona.
The living legend has since eclipsed those career-highs this season by recording his 19th assist just recently versus Villarreal.
With four more remaining fixtures scheduled for his team, Messi has plenty more opportunities to add to that count before the end of the season.
Other records of the night
With a total of four goals against Villarreal, Barcelona has officially reached the 9,000th mark in terms of goals scored in all official competitions.
NINE. THOUSAND! 🤯https://t.co/zOdvAFBS60
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) July 6, 2020
The soccer club scored its first goal ever in 1909, during a semifinal game against Madrid, with Romà Forns hitting the net for the Catalans.
111 years later, Ansu Fati now enters the books as the Barca player to score the 9,000th goal in club history.
Broken down, Barcelona’s 9,000 goals consist of 6,165 La Liga goals, 1,474 Copa del Rey goals, and 543 Champions League goals. The remainder have been scored in the European Cup Winners’ Cup (178), UEFA Cup (149), Fairs Cup (141), European Cup (87), Spanish Super Cup (75), League Cup (39), Pyrenees Cup (39), Mediterranean League (27), Club World Cup (23), European Super Cup (17), Spanish Cup (16), Latin Cup (12), Eva Duarte Cup (5), Intercontinental Cup (1), and other matches (7), per Barcelona’s official website.
Another Barcelona striker, Luis Suárez, also managed to reach another record during the game against Villarreal.
El Pistolero, one of the all-time greats https://t.co/MMR7XNji3w
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) July 6, 2020
By scoring his team’s second goal in the match, the Uruguayan forward has logged his 194th goal for the soccer club.
He has now equaled Ladislau Kubala’s 194 goals, and is tied for third in the all-time scoring rankings for Barcelona players.
The only players above him in the list are César, with 232 goals, and his current teammate, Lionel Messi, with a whopping 630 goals and counting. For some context, Messi’s 630 goals is seven percent of Barcelona’s 9,000 goals.
If Suárez scores 38 more goals for the team, he should be able to match Cesar’s tally.
Images courtesy of FC Barcelona Official Website