There is no doubt Lionel Messi is now world’s best footballer. The Argentine currently holds FIFA World Player of the Year and European Footballer of the Year awards mainly because of his magnificent form with Spanish club Barcelona.
Though Messi has been a prolific goal corer for Barcelona over the last couple of seasons, his scoring form is poor when it comes to World Cup. He has scored only 1 goal in 7 appearances in World Cup which is a stark contrast of his scoring form in club football.
His overall scoring record for Argentina is not good either. Representing Argentina in 48 matches, Messi netted only 13 goals averaging 0.27 goals per match. On the other hand, Messi scored 88 goals for Barcelona in Spanish La Liga in 144 matches, averaging 0.61 goals per match.
Messi got his solitary World Cup goal in Argentina’s 6-0 victory over Serbia and Serbia and Montenegro in a group C match of 2006 World Cup which was the first World Cup for the diminutive striker. In the 2006 tournament, Messi was not a regular member of Argentina’s starting line up and played only 3 matches including just 1 appearance in the starting eleven.
Even in the ongoing World Cup 2010, Messi could not score any goal yet in the first four matches (until the Mexico match of the round of 16), despite starting in all the matches. However, he has been in dominating form and set up a number of goals for the fellow strikers.
** All the information mentioned above is based on the matches until Argentina’s round of 16 meeting against Mexico in World Cup Football 2010.
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