Messi takes honours as Barça reach 5,000 goals

Lionel Messi underlined his place in FC Barcelona's history on Sunday as two goals in the 2-1 victory at Real Racing Club took the Catalan giants to 5,000 Liga goals, and lifted the forward to fifth in the ESM Golden Shoe rankings.

Winning run
The timing of this latest achievement could not be more fitting with the club 12 points clear of rivals Real Madrid CF in the Liga title race and Josep Guardiola's charges earning a dazzling ninth consecutive league victory on the road since their opening-match setback at CD Numancia.

Prolific Messi
The player claiming the historic strike was equally appropriate with talisman Messi taking his tally to 16 goals in 18 games for the league campaign. Entering from the bench, the Argentinian playmaker levelled the encounter on 65 minutes before reaching the magical figure with a goal worthy of such a milestone.

Familiar opposition
Messi strode past one player by controlling the ball on his chest before finishing with an explosive volley across the goalkeeper and into the far corner of the Racing net. The strike ensured Barcelona registered the 5000th goal in the same city and against the same opposition as they scored their first, when Manuel Perera was the player on target.

Record figures
Messi joins a select group who have brought up such landmarks for the club. Barça's 4,000th goal came through Guillermo Amor on 9 March 1996 against Valencia CF, the 3,000th from Enrique Castro on 24 January 1982 versus CD Castellón, the 2,000th by Pedro Zaballa in Valencia on 12 January 1964, and the 1,000th courtesy of Marco Aurélio against EU Lleida on 22 October 1950.

Personal gains
The 21-year-old also made a significant personal stride as his goals, his 15th and 16th in the Liga this season, lifted him to fifth in the race to be crowned as Europe's most prolific marksman. The Argentinian international is now 13 points behind leader Marc Janko, who was not in action as the Austrian Bundesliga has not resumed following the winter break, and remains a goal behind David Villa. The Valencia CF man was the week's other big mover after hitting two in the 3-2 triumph against UD Almería.

Only the leading five countries (Spain, Italy, Germany, France and England) on the UEFA Ranking have two as their multiplier. This is to emphasise the difference in (international) performance level between the clubs from those countries and those from the other nations.

A player cannot first play in a summer league (eg Norway) and then in a winter league (eg Spain) and combine the points total for each season.

Figures from Voetbal International