{"id":197694,"date":"2026-03-19T12:11:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197694\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T12:11:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:11:13","slug":"inter-miami-star-lionel-messi-scores-milestone-900th-goal-joining-ronaldo-in-club-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197694\/","title":{"rendered":"Inter Miami star Lionel Messi scores milestone 900th goal, joining Ronaldo in club"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2013 Lionel Messi has reached another milestone, getting his 900th career goal<\/a> in the opening minutes of Inter Miami’s CONCACAF Champions Cup Round of 16 match against Nashville on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

The back-to-back Major League Soccer MVP, eight-time Ballon d’Or winner and World Cup champion got it as would be expected \u2014 with his left foot, like the majority of his career goals for club and country. He took a pass in the middle of the box in the seventh minute, controlled the ball, spun and lined a low shot through a maze of defenders and into the far corner of the net.<\/p>\n

Cristiano Ronaldo<\/a> is the only other men’s player with more than 900 goals \u2014 at least, by official counts. It took Ronaldo about 100 more matches to get to the milestone than Messi needed; Ronaldo was 39 when he got to 900 goals in September 2024, while Messi doesn’t turn 39 until June. <\/p>\n

The historic goal drew the attention of stars names from even outside the soccer world. Basketball Hall of Famer Magic Johnson posted on social media that Messi reaching 900 goals is an \u201cincredible milestone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat an unbelievable feat!\u201d Johnson wrote.<\/p>\n

There are some who have suggested Brazilian legend Pel\u00e9<\/a> topped 1,000 goals for his career, though his \u201cofficial\u201d total is closer to 800. Different sources, counting different sets of games, list Pel\u00e9\u2019s goal totals anywhere from around 650 in league matches to somewhere near 1,300 in all matches \u2014 some against low-level competition.<\/p>\n

It was a night where Messi surely didn’t feel like celebrating. Nashville tied Inter Miami 1-1, advancing to the tournament quarterfinals on an away-goal tiebreaker. The teams played to a 0-0 tie in Nashville last week, the opening leg of the Round of 16 matchup.<\/p>\n

Nashville coach B.J. Callaghan paid tribute after the game, saying, \u201c900 goals, congratulations to him. He\u2019s the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Messi remains the game’s most popular and most-followed player. His No. 10 Inter Miami jersey has been the bestseller in the league since he arrived in MLS, and everything he does becomes major news in all corners of the soccer world.<\/p>\n

This milestone joins countless other awards and accomplishments over Messi\u2019s career, including eight Pichichi trophies as La Liga\u2019s top scorer, six La Liga best player nods, three Best FIFA Men\u2019s Player awards, three UEFA Men\u2019s Player of the Year wins, two FIFA World Cup Golden Balls and no fewer than 15 selections as Argentina\u2019s best player in a given year.<\/p>\n

Messi has also been part of winning 47 trophies for club and country \u2014 including the 2022 World Cup for Argentina and last season’s MLS title with Inter Miami \u2014 making him the most decorated player the men\u2019s game has ever seen. He is likely to play again for Argentina this summer when the World Cup is held in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality,\u201d Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano said late last season, \u201cis that Leo clears all doubts.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than half of Messi’s goals came with Barcelona, the place he played for nearly two decades. He joined Inter Miami in 2023, was under contract through the end of last season originally and now has a new deal stretching into 2028.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2013 Lionel Messi has reached another milestone, getting his 900th career goal in the opening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[11014,249,251,250,15259,1660,110],"class_list":["post-197694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-cristiano-ronaldo","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-javier-mascherano","tag-lionel-messi","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}