Lionel Messi becomes all time top scorer in South American World Cup qualifiers

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Lionel Messi has become the all time top scorer in South American World Cup qualifiers.

Messi scored two goals for Argentina in their 2-0 win vs. Peru, reaching 31 goals in the qualifiers and into first place. He was previously tied with Luis Suárez for first place on 29 goals.

This is Messi’s sixth South American World Cup qualifying campaign and prior to the start of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, had scored 28 goals. Messi did not score in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers but had four goals in the 2010 campaign, 10 for 2014, seven for 2018 and seven for the 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign.

17 Comments

  1. Everytime Neymar gets injured it exposes how overrated his team-mates are. 2014, Germany humiliated them. And yesterday all big names playing for big and rich clubs couldn’t get a shot on target against Uruguay, Zero shots on goal!! Their second best player V.Junior has yet to carry the Brazilian team on his own. He was completely shut out by Croatia in the world cup and yesterday same thing. He can only play a second fiddle. He has pace and dribbles okay but finishing is not upto the mark. And a team can’t be build around him!

    Rodrigo is just a hyped player and will be sold by Madrid after this season, Casemiro is old and fat and slowing rapidly, Richarlison and G.Jesus are at best a substitute strikers and wouldn’t even make our bench in striker role. With Neymar gone for 9 months, Brazilians overrated and overhyped players are going to get exposed in the upcoming qualifiers and Copa America. Some delusional people actually thought this overrated team will win the next world cup. At best they are a quarterfinal team. Any decent European team can knock them out.

    • Could be interesting.
      English media will surely label it as the transition game for best player in the world, from Messi to Bellingham.

  2. Nico and macallister both are Scalonis special findingscinnmodern day futball.These players bring to this team what modetn day game want that scaloni and co looking.

  3. Why was that third goal disallowed? The referee indicates offside but that can’t be correct. It was a missed clearance by the defender, and Messi was not involved in play during the previous Argentine pass, so it could not have been offside either way.

    A foul by Alvarez could have been a possible reason, but referee clearly said offside, not foul.

  4. “No wonder Scaloni likes Nico González a lot because of his characteristics, he may have missed a few chances against Paraguay but he had an assist yesterday and was very good overall. It’s not a coincidence that he gets a lot of chances and that’s because of his abilities and what he brings on the pitch.

    He is a versatile and all-around winger, he is also fast, helps the team very much in defense and is good with headers. He just needs to work on finishing in the final third and it’s clear that for Scaloni he’s the first option when Di María is not on the pitch or when the team needs a pure winger who can stretch the game.”
    From albicelestes talk

    Nico gonzalez will get better but i would love see him play right side Where he Plays his club fiorentina the biggest joke was when some of us call him fruad
    For just one game, what do you know about football.

    • Just need to watch his performance for Fiorentina instead of judging based on 1 or 2 matches for national team. He has been brilliant for Fiorentina for these two seasons. Can’t exclude a player with that quality.

      That being said there is no denying there is some bias involved, when it comes to a few players like Pezzella, Armani, Gonzalez, Paredes, who keep getting more chances compared to others irrespective of club form. Just happens to be a coincidence that Gonzalez actually happens to be in great form at this point as well LOL. He was not in good form during Copa America but still got favored over the likes of Papu Gonzalez who was in stunning form at the time.

    • Impossible for Nico to play as inverted wing on the right. Theoretically he would score more as he would be cutting in and shooting with his left but that’s what Messi does. The space would get cluttered and Argentina would lack width. There’s more to contribution than scoring goals.

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