During the calendar year, Leo scored a record 91 goals combined in all competitions for Barcelona and the Argentina national side, shattering the mark of 85 tallied by GerdMuller for Bayern Munich and Germany in 1972.
Though he had already bested Muller’s mark (and many others) early in December, young Leo finished his 2012 this past Saturday with a brilliant goal in Barcelona’s 3-1 victory at Valladolid, a delightful buildup and finish best summed up by Ray Hudson’s “magisterial” call on beIN Sport.
Now, Messi’s club side may have had a relatively underwhelming end to the 2011-12 campaign, finishing a disappointing second to Real Madrid in La Liga and falling to Chelsea in the semifinals of the Champions League. But Messi neither underwhelmed nor disappointed.
But I didn't realize quite how ridiculous Messi's year was until I broke down the numbers.
To start, Messi's 91 goals upped Muller's record by about seven percent. That would be like Miguel Cabrera breaking Barry Bonds' one-season home-run record of 73—and not by a home run or two...but by five, for a new total of 78. That would be impressive.
Leo scored 91 total goals in 69 official games, 79 in 60 appearances for the Blaugrana and 12 in nine matches for the Albiceleste.
The math is easy enough; that’s an average of 1.319 goals per game. While it’s not quite up to Muller’s average of 1.417 (85 goals in 60 matches) back in ’72, well, it ain’t half bad.
Messi’s tally of 91 goals in 69 matches, though, gets more impressive when you look at it under several other lights.
According to ESPN FC’s count of Messi’s playing time in 2012, that’s an average of one goal every 66 minutes he was on the pitch. If you consider that Racing Santander—I repeat, the entire team of Racing Santander—scored just 28 goals in 38 La Liga games in 2011-12 for an average of 0.737 goals a game and one goal every 122 minutes, you realize what a ridiculous number Messi’s total is. In fact, Messi’s total 2012 goal-scoring numbers best those of an astonishing 13 La Liga teams from the 2011-12 campaign
Video Link
No comments:
Post a Comment