Messi breaks Rivaldo's scoring record

With a brace in Barca's 3-1 win over Arsenal on Tuesday, Messi surpassed the Brazilian midfielder to become Barca's all-time leading scorer in European competition.

Before the Barca - Arsenal match, Rivaldo and Messi both had 31 goals. All of Messi's goals were scored in the Champions League while Rivaldo had 25 Champions League goals, 5 UEFA Cup goals and 1 European Super Cup goal.

Rivaldo is the player who won the European Ballon d'Or and FIFA Player of the Year in 1999.

At the age of 23, Messi holds many records at Barca. Notable among them are the record for goals scored in a season (47 goals, 2009-2010 season, similar to former striker Ronaldo in 1996-1997 season), the record for goals scored in a season in La Liga (34, similar to Ronaldo), the player with the most goals in the Champions League (33) and internationally (35).

In Barca's history, Messi is the 11th player to win the Liga top scorer title (2009-2010 season, 34 goals in 35 matches). The other 10 players are Mariano Martín (1942–43, 32 goals in 23 games), César Rodríguez (1948–49, 28 goals, 24 games), Cayetano Re (1964–65, 25 goals, 30 games), Carles Rexach (1970–71, 17 goals, 28 games), Hans Krankl (1978/79, 29 goals, 30 games), Quini (1980/81, 20 goals, 30 games), Quini (1981–82, 26 goals, 32 games), Romário (1993–94, 30 goals, 33 games), Ronaldo (1996–97, 34 goals, 37 games) and Samuel Eto'o (2005–06, 26 goals, 35 games),

Messi has now scored 172 goals for Barca, ranking fourth in the list of top scorers after César Rodríguez (235), László Kubala (196) and Josep Samitier (178).

Messi started playing for Barca in 2004.

Enzo Francescoli, a midfielder who played at the same time as Argentine legend Diego Maradona, believes that Messi has greater talent than Maradona.

"Some people will be surprised when I say Messi is better than Maradona in the past, but that's the reality. I even think Messi hasn't developed his full potential yet. In my opinion, he will win at least two more Ballons d'Or," said Enzo Francescoli.

Messi currently has 26 goals in the 2010-2011 Liga season after 27 matches, and is likely to break his own and Ronaldo's record (34) in the remaining 11 matches of the tournament.

Earlier this year, Messi won the Ballon d'Or for the second year in a row. He is the first player to achieve this feat since Marco Van Basten (1988, 1989).

According to VnExpress