A player that transcends his sport and has become a god-like figure in his 20-year football career, Lionel Messi has scored some of the beautiful game’s greatest ever goals.As he reaches over 800 career goals, it is the perfect time to collate the most impressive goals of his career.

Prodigiously talented in footwork, vision, technical ability and goal-scoring prowess, Messi has won countless titles and accolades during his time at Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona, his boyhood club.He has seven Ballon d’Or awards, six European Golden Shoes and two World Cup Golden Balls, the latter was earned while leading his country to glory at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

In a career that cemented his position as an all-time great, Messi has scored some breathtaking goals.From a prodigious wonderkid to a seasoned veteran, let’s dive into his top ten goals, all of which showcase why the Argentine is so revered.

All relevant stats are taken from Transfermarkt unless stated.

10 #10 vs.Bayern Munich, 2015, Champions League Semi-Final First Leg

Starting off our countdown is a famous goal in the annals of Camp Nou’s great European nights.Squaring off against former manager Pep Guardiola’s new side Bayern Munich, Messi smelled blood.

He receives the ball in some decent space but still has a world of work to do.Squaring up against Jerome Boateng, who had eased him off the ball 20 seconds before, the Argentine pirouettes left then right past the mountainous German defender.Boateng is flummoxed and falls hard on the Catalan turf.

Messi, unfazed, opts to lob over the onrushing Manuel Neuer, unquestionably world football’s greatest goalkeeper at the time.

Sprinting back to try and salvage it, Rafinha attempts to clear off the line, but it sails beyond him and into the Bayern net.

A sumptuous combination of skill and predatory finishing from Messi to begin our list.

9 #9 vs.USA, 2016, Copa America Semi-Final

Here, Messi cements his status as one of football’s great dead-ball specialists.As far as free kicks go, this is near perfection.

35 yards from goal, Messi steps up, knowing that a goal would make him Argentina’s record goalscorer.His left-foot strike is perfect, somehow rising to clip the underside of the crossbar’s netting and bouncing down – a real ‘postage stamp’ goal.

It stuns the home crowd.

The legendary Gabriel Batistuta scored 56 goals for football-crazy Argentina.On this occasion, 28-year-old Leo Messi took over as his country’s greatest goalscorer and secured their passage into the Copa America final.

8 #8 vs.

Brazil, 2012, International Friendly

No game between these eternal foes is ever a ‘friendly’.A Brazil side which featured Neymar, Hulk, Oscar and Marcelo, who was sent off late on, showed just how importantly this game was taken by the Seleção.

In front of a neutral USA crowd, with the score level at 3-3 after 83 minutes, Messi got up to his usual tricks in sublime fashion.Picking it up in his signature inside right channel, he carries the ball inside, shimmies to beat his man and fires an absolute peach past the goalkeeper.

Textbook Lionel Messi.

7 #7 vs.Valencia, 2010, La Liga

With the scores locked at 0-0, Xavi slips Messi the ball.

How many times did this combination spell danger to the opposition?

Barcelona are facing against a Valencia wonder-team stacked with youngsters like Juan Mata, David Silva, Éver Banega as well as Messi’s future teammates David Villa and Jordi Alba.

He glides past two white shirts effortlessly, leaving the third a matter of yards away from him in the blink of an eye.The onrushing Valencia ‘keeper was beaten at his near post by a delightful drop of the little magician’s shoulder.

6 #6 vs.

Liverpool, 2019, Champions League Sem-Final First Leg

Another stupendous free kick from Messi.

The dead ball sits centrally, a position not favoured by many takers.It gives the taker a greater task in deceiving the goalkeeper.Messi steps up and fires a lethal shot past the world-class Alisson into the top-left corner.

In terms of event, it does not get much more important than this.This goal made it 3-0 to Barcelona in the Champions League semi-finals.

Famously, Liverpool overturned this deficit at Anfield on their way to Champions League glory against Tottenham Hotspur.

5 #5 vs.Getafe, 2014, La Liga

Halfway through our list is where the goals go from the outstanding to the downright difficult to understand.Here, against Getafe, Messi shows his hawk-like vision and deep forward-thinking.

The Barcelona attack is seemingly static – Messi moves past an anonymous defensive midfielder.He’s then pressed by the two centre-backs of Getafe.

Knowing his options are limited, he plays a perfect through ball intohisownpath, leaving his markers for dead.After this, he delicately rounds the keeper and passes into an open goal from a deceptively hard angle.Messi makes the enormously difficult look achingly easy.

4 #4 vs.

Athletic Club, 2013, La Liga

But not that Athletic goal.

Another ludicrous goal that only a handful of players in world football are capable of attempting.

The Argentine receives it in an innocuous position, over 40 yards away from goal.The well-drilled Bilbao players are in good positions to defend it.

He slicks past three tacklers with a series of deft chops to the left and right.

In his stride, Messi finds himself the half-yard of space he requires and picks the angle to place the ball beyond Iraizoz finely.

A famously slick move by the master of the dribble.

3 #3 vs.Real Madrid, 2011, Champions League semi-final first leg

Messi is a man for the big occasion; games do not get much more monumental than this.El Clasico in the latter stages of the Champions League.Both Barça and Real are European royalty, and both sets of fans ache for glory at the start of every campaign.

Barcelona were deep within a golden age; the top three places in the Ballon d’Or award four months earlier were all Barca players (Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez and, of course Lionel Messi).

It was a tumultuously heated affair, which saw two red cards and no goals after the hour mark.

What came next was quintessential Messi.A famously nonchalant one-two with Sergio Busquets, who simply touches the ball to allow Messi to run into his path.A twisting, turning, zig-zagging dribble then takes Lassana Diarra, Sergio Ramos, Raúl Albiol and Marcelo out of the game.All household names in world football, made to look like schoolboys.

Messi caps off the move by slotting a wicked shot past Spanish #1 Iker Casillas.Forever a thorn in his side, Messi scored a ridiculous 18 goals against Casillas in his career – more than he scored against any other goalkeeper (via Bleacher Report).

‘A near-supernatural goal from Lionel Messi’ – Peter Drury

2 #2 vs.

Athletic Club, 2015, Copa Del Rey final

That one.

Realistically, no player has any right to score from where Messi gets the ball, but he is not just any player.

A 27-year-old Messi picks up a pass from Dani Alves and is immediately closed down by one, then three Athletic players.He spectacularly dances past all three with a blend of close and heavy touches, shimmies past yet another one-on-one challenge and unleashes a signature near-post cutting finish.Perfection in vision, dribbling, technique, touch and finish.

Messi would go on to lift a continental treble for Barcelona this season – his second for the Catalan giants.

1 #1 vs.Getafe, 2007, Copa Del Rey semi-final 1st leg

The greatest goal ever scored?

Before he was a deity, Lionel Messi was simply a naturally gifted young footballer.Barcelona fans knew he had a talent, but as seen in countless examples, talented players don’t always live up to their potential.In his now-revered first Barcelona shirt – the number 19 – a nineteen-year-old Messi announces himself to world football in the most spectacular of ways.

It was a goal that eerily mirrored one famously scored by compatriot and eternal Argentine hero Diego Maradona.

The Getafe players helplessly try to keep up, dressed in bright traffic cone yellow, with the onrushing wonderkid Lionel Messi.He’s deep into his third season and already has an air of brilliance in the Camp Nou.

His electric pace is matched with his prodigious talent on the ball as he picks up possession in his own half on a mission.After beating no less than four Getafe defenders, through a mix of labyrinthian dribbling and microscopically close control, he rounds the goalkeeper like it’s nothing and lofts it over the sliding defender.

Manager Frank Rijkaard is shellshocked.

He can only applaud and wryly chuckle – his young maestro has just pulled off the impossible goal.Teammates Deco, Eto’o, Zambrotta and Guðjohnsen, who have all made careers on producing the spectacular, can’t quite believe it and rush to celebrate with the little genius.

A chorus of dumbfounded applause rings around Camp Nou and a star is born..