Atlanta United won’t be happy with their showing in the 2023 Leagues Cup, finishing bottom of Group South 3, but at least they can take solace from the fact that they’ve made history.
By letting Lionel Messi stroll past the backline and assist himself off the post, Atlanta didn’t just become the first MLS team to concede against arguably the game’s greatest-ever player — they became the 100th club from around the world to concede to Messi. For a career which has been chronicled at length and fascinated many millions of fans for the better part of two decades, it provides another framework to remember his brilliance in front of goal.
Someone had to be first in this litany. Unfortunately for Albacete Balompié, which now plays in Spain’s Segunda División, Messi’s club account opener also happens to be worthy of a spot on his highlight reel from its own merit.
It was May 1, 2005. After coming off the bench in place of Samuel Eto’o, Messi quickly showed the training ground connection he was building with Ronaldinho. The Brazilian icon lobbed a ball over the back line to his apprentice, who in turn chipped it above the flailing goalkeeper. In an instant classic of a celebration, Ronaldinho lifted the 17-year-old for a piggyback ride.
That was his only goal in nine appearances during the 2004-05 season. That tally rose to eight over 25 appearances in 2005-06. As he became more integrated into the first team, Messi’s goalscoring then took off. In the 2006-07 season’s sixth match on October 15, Messi scored the insurance goal in a 3-1 win over Sevilla. It started a trend of him beating the perennial Europa League winners’ defense more than any other opponent he’s faced throughout his career.
While he’d have more iconic clashes with Real Madrid and was often challenged by Barcelona’s local rival Espanyol, no club shipped them in for Messi quite like Sevilla.
Unsurprisingly, all 10 of his most frequent victims come from Spain; that was bound to be the case given his lengthy stay at the Camp Nou. Seemingly, defensive quality has little to do with whether or not he scores against you. All he needs is the opportunity.
In total, Messi has scored 548 goals against 41 Spanish clubs. That dwarfs his second highest nation of export, France, which has allowed 34 across 15 clubs. To spare you a search, Stade de Reims is not among those 15 — another feather in Will Still’s cap.
Let’s be honest, though: it isn’t terribly interesting to learn that Messi scored a lot against La Liga and Ligue 1 clubs. We know he can do that, and has been doing so since the mid-2000s. Zoom the scope out to cover the whole globe, however, and we find some really interesting data points.
Those 100 clubs come scattered across 22 nations. England has been his third most fruitful nation of opponent origin, bagging 27 goals against the Premier League’s old “big six” sides: Arsenal most often with nine, followed by seven from Manchester City in a wholly different kind of title race. While he found the back of the net against one more German team than the English sextet, those seven held him to “just” 19 goals.
Surely, you’d think that Italy would be his fifth favorite nationality to score against as the last member of Europe’s elite leagues. And you’d be right — although it’s a narrow margin between them and the chasing pack, as he has only scored against Juventus, AC Milan, Napoli and Roma.
Tied with Portugal for sixth is not the Netherlands, or anywhere else he’d be drawn against in the UEFA Champions League. Instead, it’s Mexico — Messi scored against his third Mexican opponent in his Inter Miami debut when he drilled a characteristically brilliant free kick against Cruz Azul.
Thanks to the Club World Cup, Messi has scored against two other Mexican clubs: Santos and Atlante, the Cancún-based side, which currently plays in Mexico’s second division. Perhaps they’ll offer him a resort package to commemorate his latest milestone.
Messi’s record carries some other interesting observations. Allowing him to score multiple goals provides a rare shared moment for Celtic and Rangers. He’s rippled the net against teams from footballing hotbeds Cyprus (APOEL Nicosia), Belarus (BATE Borisov), Hungary (Ferencvárosi TC), Israel (Maccabi Haifa) and two different Czechian sides (Viktoria Plzen and Slavia Prague). Remember that for the next time someone tries to justify the European Super League.
And of course, it all came together at DRV PNK Stadium against his new Eastern Conference rivals from Georgia. No doubt, they won’t long be the only MLS club to concede against Messi. Perhaps some clubs lower in the U.S. soccer pyramid will have the pleasure of joining this esteemed group in the 2024 U.S. Open Cup. Whoever comes next, though, they’ll be far from the first team trying to watch his highlight reels through the hands held over their eyes.
(Photo: Hector Vivas/Getty Images)
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