Lionel Messi has officially surpassed Cristiano Ronaldo's free-kick record after scoring from a direct set-piece in Argentina's 3-0 win over Jamaica in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
The 35-year-old started on the bench in the 2021 Copa America winners' victory over Jamaica, but scored yet another brace after being introduced as a second-half substitute.
His goals came within three minutes of one another towards the end of the match, including a free-kick strike that saw him bring up his 59th goal from direct dead-ball situations for club and country.
Messi has thus now surpassed Ronaldo's free-kick record, with the ex-Real Madrid and Juventus talisman having so far racked up 58 set-piece goals in his career since arriving on the scene.
This also means no other active footballer has been more accurate from free-kicks than the Argentina captain, who is now just three away from equalling Diego Maradona's record tally of 62.
Brazil icon Juninho Pernambucano, widely considered as the greatest dead-ball specialist of all time, still leads the ranking after scoring 77 free-kick goals.
According to various sources, these are the 10 leading free-kick goalscorers of all time:
— kurt (@kurtbuckerfield) September 28, 2022
1. Juninho - 77
2. Pele - 70
3. Ronaldinho - 66
- Legrotaglie - 66
5. Beckham - 65
6. Maradona - 62
- Zico - 62
8. Koeman - 60
9. Messi - 59 (ACTIVE)
- Rogerio Ceni - 59
- Carioca - 59 pic.twitter.com/c14LXKaRDI
Messi's form for Argentina in 2022
The former Barcelona skipper has now hit the back of the net on 10 occasions for his country in 2022, with 12 goals being the most he has scored in a single calendar year for Argentina.
Of his 10 strikes, nine of them have come in his past three outings for the Albiceleste after he struck five times against Estonia in July, twice against Honduras this past weekend and twice against Jamaica.
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