Why Lionel Messi Is the Soccer Goat

There is a no doubt GOAT of soccer (football for anyone not American), and his name is Lionel Messi.

Messi has a laundry list of accomplishments during his career at both the club and international levels. Most recently he won the 2022 World Cup and in the 2026 World Cup he scored a hat trick in Argentina’s first group stage game to tie the record for most goals ever in a World Cup. At the club level, he has dominated the MLS since joining Inter Miami in July of 2023. In that time Messi has one MLS Championship win and two MLS MVPs in which he won it in back-to-back years. He is the only MLS player to ever win the MVP award in back-to-back seasons. The recent years alone make a case for him as a great soccer player, but if you go back to his first season with Barcelona in 2008, he has won a total of thirteen league titles over his decorated career. He won ten with Barcelona, two with Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), and the previously mentioned title with Inter Miami. To go along with the two league MVPs in the MLS, we can add nine more that he won while in La Liga. Add in his international accomplishments of one hundred and twenty goals for Argentina in two hundred appearances. He has won Copa America twice; he won the CONMEBAL-UEFA Cup of Champions, and a gold medal as well. He has won the Golden Ball for the World Cup twice. There are plenty of other accomplishments that Messi has achieved over the course of his career. If I were to name them all, this article would be as long as the bible. All I know is that when Messi finally decides to hand up his cleats (boots), he will be the GOAT of soccer (football) and there will be no argument that anyone can make to say otherwise.