Goal Lionel Messi will ‘always remember’ from 821 strikes – not World Cup final

Lionel Messi revealed what one goal he will ‘always remember’ from his collection of 821 strikes and counting.

Messi has won all there is to win in football after ticking off the final piece on the list – the World Cup. The 36-year-old has scored 821 goals in his career, including a brace in the World Cup final and two in two separate Champions League finals against Manchester United in 2009 and 2011.

But the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner revealed that none of those goals were his favourite to date. Instead, Messi recalled one special Champions League goal under the lights for Barcelona against Real Madrid in a spectacular El Clasico clash at the Santiago Bernabeu.

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It was the Argentine’s iconic individual run in the 2011 Champions League semi-final where he started at the half way line and ended seconds later by sliding in Barcelona’s second in the 2-0 win, in which he scored both of the goals.

Speaking to Football France, Messi said: "Well, I always say that special goals are the important thing. To have scored in the Champions League final, to have scored now in the final of the World Cup… I don't know.

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"A goal that I always remember and I don't go much for the goal and for what the goals mean, it’s the goal against Real Madrid, which we beat 2-0 in that Champions League semi-final at the Bernabeu. I think the most significant goals are always the most important ones. But for one, I would stick with one of those."

Out of Messi’s 821 strikes to date, 672 of them came in 778 Barcelona games, with that strike putting the Catalan side ahead in the semi-final before a 1-1 draw at the Camp Nou set up a meeting with United at Wembley.

Two years earlier, Messi had netted the second against United in the 2-0 final win in Rome with a gravity-defying header. And he stole the show again by scoring Barca’s second in the 3-1 win.

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