Messi Overtakes Ronaldo In South America Goal-Scoring Charts

Messi Needs 14 More Goals To Become All Time South America Top Scorer

Lionel Messi, Argentina and Barcelona superstar, has broken the record of Ronaldo Nazario, a Brazilian legend, in the South American top goalscorers history.

Messi, with 14 more goals will become the all time top goal scorer in South America. The Argentine netted a hat-trick in Argentina’s 4-0 friendly win over Haiti on Wednesday morning, taking his overall tally for the Argentina side to 64 goals.

In doing so, he bettered the record of Selecao forward Ronaldo, who retired with 62 strikes for Brazil.

Pele, a three time World Cup champion, who sits in seventh spot in the worldwide all-time ranking, is the only South American player to have scored more than Messi. Pele retired with 77 goals for Brazil, which means Messi needs to score 14 more times to overtake the legendary striker.

Messi also extended his own record as Argentina’s all-time record scorer, and is now 10 strikes ahead of second-placed Gabriel Batistuta, Sergio Aguero, who scored his country’s fourth goal in the 4-0 win over Haiti, follows in third place with 38 strikes.

Argentina will play Israel next, on June 9, in their final friendly ahead of the 2018 World Cup, before starting their tournament against Iceland on June 16.