The World’s greatest player, Lionel Messi has once again shown why he deserves the honour, after he writes his name into the history books by breaking Gerd Mueller’s 40 year old record of Most Goals in a Calendar Year.

 

The record previously held by Gerd Mueller ‘The Torpedo’, was set back in 1972, when he scored a total of 85 goals in all competitions. Mueller scored 72 for Bayern Munich and added a further 13 goals for Germany’s national squad. While speaking to German Newspaper Sport1.de Gerd Mueller said “My record stood for 40 years – 85 goals in 60 games. Now the best player in the world has broken it. I’m delighted for him, he is an incredible player, gigantic.”

 

Messi, who has won the World Player of the Year Award three times now, has just made his claim for the fourth even more likely. Messi broke the record during Barcelona’s 2-1 win against Real Betis on Sunday. Messi equalled Mueller’s record after 16 minutes of play, and then moving one clear 9 minutes later, securing the victory.

 

Lionel Messi said to Spanish TV station Canal Plus “I always say the same, it’s nice for what it means but the victory is more important as it maintains our lead over the other teams. My goal when the year began was to try to achieve everything again, with the team, in the league, the cup, the Champions League. I always start with that idea in mind.”

 

This year Messi has scored 90 goals for club and country, the majority of them were scored with his deadly left foot, hitting 75; he saw 8 go in with his right and 3 with headers. Out of these, 74 were scored with inside of the penalty area while the remaining 12 were smashed in from long distance.