{"id":46450,"date":"2021-09-10T18:27:18","date_gmt":"2021-09-10T16:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?p=46450"},"modified":"2021-09-10T16:58:32","modified_gmt":"2021-09-10T14:58:32","slug":"lionel-messi-breaks-brazil-legend-peles-international-goals-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/lionel-messi-breaks-brazil-legend-peles-international-goals-record","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi Breaks Brazil Legend Pele\u2019s International Goals Record"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\">Zimbabwe<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Argentina\u2019s captain Lionel Messi has scored his 79th international career goal surpassing the South American men\u2019s record held by Brazil legend Pele.<\/p>\n<p>Messi scored all three goals in Argentina\u2019s 3-0 win over Bolivia on Thursday in a World Cup qualifying match at the Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n<p>The hattrick gave the PSG forward two more than Pele, who had 77 career goals in international play.<\/p>\n<p>Messi trails Brazilian duo Marta (109) and Cristiane (96) for the overall record for most goals scored by any South American player at the international level.<\/p>\n<p>Third on the men\u2019s list is Messi\u2019s Paris Saint-Germain teammate Neymar, who has 69 international goals for Brazil. Speaking after the match, Messi said:<\/p>\n<p>I was very nervous, I just wanted to enjoy the night. I waited a long time for this.<\/p>\n<p>We won the game [and] that was the most important thing and now we can celebrate.<\/p>\n<p>Messi (34), has had a memorable summer -winning his first senior international football title in July.<\/p>\n<p>He and La Albiceleste claimed the Copa America from Brazil in a 1-0 win at Rio de Janeiro\u2019s Maracana stadium.<\/p>\n<p>After Thursday\u2019s result, Messi danced with his teammates and showed off the Copa trophy to the 21 000 supporters present.<\/p>\n<p>With 26 goals in World Cup qualifying matches following his hat-trick against Bolivia, Messi also passes Uruguay star Luis Suarez for most among CONMEBOL players.<\/p>\n<p>With eight career goals vs. Bolivia in 11 games, it is Messi\u2019s most against a single opponent while donning the Argentina shirt.<\/p>\n<p>Messi is also his country\u2019s men\u2019s all-time leading scorer, having moved past Gabriel Batistuta (54 goals) in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>He is also Argentina\u2019s most capped player, with Thursday\u2019s match against Bolivia marking his 153rd international appearance.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to the Copa America victory, Messi had lost four major finals with Argentina\u2019s senior side.<\/p>\n<p>They were beaten by Germany in the 2014 World Cup final and had lost in the final at the Copa America in 2007, 2015 and 2016.<\/p>\n<p>He had won the under-20 World Cup in 2005 and an Olympic gold medal with Argentina\u2019s U23s in 2008.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. Argentina\u2019s captain Lionel Messi has scored his 79th international career goal surpassing the South American men\u2019s record held by Brazil legend Pele. Messi scored all three goals in Argentina\u2019s 3-0 win over Bolivia on Thursday in a World Cup qualifying match at the Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires. The hattrick gave the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":46449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,35,16,15],"tags":[1493,2189,2237,2240,19],"class_list":{"0":"post-46450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-homepage-english","9":"category-sport","10":"category-twitter","11":"tag-africa-press","12":"tag-africa-press-zimbabwe-2","13":"tag-lionel-messi","14":"tag-pele","15":"tag-zimbabwe"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lionel Messi Breaks Brazil Legend Pele\u2019s International Goals Record - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Argentina\u2019s captain Lionel Messi has scored his 79th international career goal surpassing the South American men\u2019s recor ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/lionel-messi-breaks-brazil-legend-peles-international-goals-record\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lionel Messi Breaks Brazil Legend Pele\u2019s International Goals Record\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Argentina\u2019s captain Lionel Messi has scored his 79th international career goal surpassing the South American men\u2019s recor ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/lionel-messi-breaks-brazil-legend-peles-international-goals-record\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-10T16:27:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-09-10T14:58:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2021\/09\/img-613b727e3c1d9.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"405\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/lionel-messi-breaks-brazil-legend-peles-international-goals-record\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/lionel-messi-breaks-brazil-legend-peles-international-goals-record\",\"name\":\"Lionel Messi Breaks Brazil Legend Pele\u2019s International Goals Record - 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