In addition to winning and lifting the trophy with Argentina, Lionel Messi had an amazing performance in the 2021 Copa America and leads in nine of the stats.

Here, all the Copa America stats where Messi was the best:
– Most goals (4)*
– Most assists (5)
– Most free kick goals (2)
– Most key passes (22)
– Most chances created (26)
– Most successful dribbles (36)
– Most goal creating actions (8)
– Most shot creating actions (46)
– Most accurate through balls (4)

*Luis Díaz, from Colombia, also scored four goals.

This is the video Messi posted via his Instagram account, which is a great recap of his best plays during the tournament:

El video que subió Leo Messi en su cuenta de Instagram tras haber ganado la Copa América. Mirá pic.twitter.com/n3TCiQjBni

— Noticias Digital 🔴 (@NotiDigitalAr) July 11, 2021

With the stunning Copa America Messi had, which ended up with his national team lifting the trophy, the Ballon d’Or FIFA 2021 seems to have a clear candidate. Will Lionel Messi be able to win his 7 th Ballon d’Or, this year?

After winning the Copa America with Argentina, Lionel Messi posted a touching video and some heartfelt lines via his Instagram account.

“In the Maracana and the classico against Brazil…”

That is how Messi started his post.

“It was an incredible cup. We know that we can still improve many things but the truth is that the boys left their souls, and I cannot be prouder to be the captain of this spectacular group.”

Then, Leo thanked his family, his friends, the Argentina fans, and Diego Maradona:

“I want to dedicate this triumph to my family, who always gave me the strength to keep going, to my friends, that I love so much, to all the people who support us, and especially to the 45 million Argentines who had such a bad time with this shit of a virus, especially those that suffered it more closely. It goes for all of you. And, of course, also for Diego, who surely supported us from wherever he is.”

After these lines, Messi sent a message of awareness to all the Argentines, so that they continue to take care of Covid-19, which in Argentina is still causing a lot of deaths:

“In order to continue celebrating, we have to continue taking care of ourselves. Let’s not forget that there is still a long way to go to return to normality. Let’s take advantage of this happiness to gain a little strength, so we can fight together and beat the virus.”

Messi finished his post with a sentence worthy of framing:

“Thank you, God, for everything you gave me, and thank you for making me Argentine! CHAMPIONS OF AMERICA!!!!!”

While Lionel Messi was the Copa America top scorer with five goals, there were some gems which found the back of the net for Argentina.

It was Lionel Messi who scored the first Argentina goal of the tournament but it was one of the tournament hero’s Angel Di Maria who scored the last one. Lionel Scaloni’s team had six different goal scorers.

Messi scored his first of two free kicks at the tournament in the team’s opening match vs. Chile. Guido Rodriguez, who was in and out of the team throughout the Copa, scored a header in the 1-0 win vs. Uruguay.

Alejandro “Papu” Gomez managed his first of the tournament following a great pass by Di Maria in the win vs. Paraguay.

After that came the four goal fest vs. Bolivia. Gomez managed his second after great work by Angel Correa and the assist by Messi. Speaking of Messi, he got his second and third goals of the tournament in the win vs. Bolivia, a penalty and a chip goal with Aguero getting the assist. Lautaro Martinez broke his duck with a close range effort.

One of the players of the final Rodrigo De Paul managed his only goal of the Copa in a 3-0 win vs. Ecuador. An assist by Messi and a cool finish by De Paul gave Argentina their first goal of the match.

Lautaro Martinez added a second goal to his name at the Copa America, once more from close range as he placed the ball into the top corner of the net. Messi added the third, an incredible free kick from the edge of the penalty area.

Again it was Lautaro scoring, this time for the third straight match as Gio Lo Celso played a ball into Messi who assisted Lautaro with his first time finish.

That match also saw Emiliano Martinez become a national hero saving three penalty kicks vs. Colombia in the penalty shootout.

Angel Di Maria wrote his name in the history books as he not only scored at the Maracana but scored Argentina’s winning goal vs. Brazil at the Maracana in a Copa America final, a chip one at that.

Of the 12 goals which were scored by Argentina at the tournament, which one was your favorite?