Lionel Messi struck another milestone on Tuesday night when he scored his 50th international goal, after netting from the penalty spot in Argentina’s 2-0 win against Bolivia.
Messi becomes the second player from Argentina – after Gabriel Batistuta – to have scored 50 international goals.
The goal came in his 107th appearance for the national side, while Batistuta finished up his international career with 54 goals in 78 games.
Messi now needs just one more goal to reach 500 for club and country, having scored 449 for Barca and 50 Argentina. He has made a total of 627 appearances to date.
Messi’s next match comes on Saturday when Barcelona host rivals Real Madrid in the Clasico.
He said: “I had not physical issues, and now is time to return to Barcelona to think about the Clasico, which will be a very big test.
“It would be a nice way to reach that number, against Real Madrid. The really nice thing would be to win the game and stretch the lead in the standings.”
Top 10 goalscorers among currently active players:
Name-Country-Goals-Appearances–Goals per match
1. Robbie Keane Rep. Ireland 67 143 0.44
2. Zlatan Ibrahimović Sweden 62 111 0.56
3. Carlos Ruiz Guatemala 60 127 0.47
4. Younis Mahmoud Iraq 57 146 0.39
5. Cristiano Ronaldo Portugal 56 125 0.45
6. Wayne Rooney England 51 109 0.47
7. Bader Al-Mutawa Kuwait 51 158 0.32
8. Sunil Chhetri India 50 88 0.56
9. Robin van Persie Holland 50 101 0.50
10. Lionel Messi Argentina 50 107 0.47
