Argentine star Lionel Messi, captain of Barcelona, entered history recently, after breaking the record of the Brazilian legend Pele, and became the most goal-scoring player in history with one team, with 644 goals.
Messi spent his entire career in Spain, and didn't know any shirt other than the one he wore with Barcelona, so it was only natural that most of his victims were La Liga goalkeepers.
5 goalkeepers receiving the most goals for Messi
The list of goalkeepers that Messi scored includes big and bright names, such as the Italian Galuigi Buffon, the German Manuel Neuer, the Czech Petr Cech, the German Jens Lehmann, the Dutch Edwin van der Sar, the Spaniard Iker Casillas, the Englishman Joe Hart, and many others.
In general, Messi fought with Barcelona 749 official matches in all competitions, during which he scored his 644 goals, including 451 goals in the Spanish League, while the other goals, the number of 193, were distributed to other tournaments, especially the European Champions League.
In the following lines, we review the 5 goalkeepers that have received the most goals of Messi since the beginning of his professional career.
Diego lopez
The former Real Madrid goalkeeper was a favorite victim of Messi, whether with Real Madrid or the other clubs he defended, namely Villarreal, Seville and Espanyol.
Messi scored 14 goals against Lopez in 22 matches between them, including two goals from two fixed kicks in one game in 2018, when Lopez was a goalkeeper for Espanyol.
Andres Fernandez
Unfortunately for Fernandez, his football journey was limited to playing with immersed clubs and faced Barcelona at the height of his brilliance, with the result that he scored 17 times from Messi alone.
Fernandez played for Osasuna, Huesca, Granada and Villarreal, and faced Messi 9 times, meaning that he scored twice in every match with the feet of the Barcelona star.
Iker Casillas
Barcelona and Real Madrid's confrontations have been repeated a lot in the golden period of Messi and Casillas, and although the latter is one of the best goalkeepers in recent decades, his nets have always excited the Argentine star's appetite.
The number of matches between Messi and Casillas reached 26 games, in which Leo scored 17 goals, to be the second best victim for the Barcelona captain, and had it not been for his early departure from Real Madrid in 2015 due to coach Jose Mourinho's differences at the time, the number of goals would have been more than that.
Perhaps the most important and most famous goal of Messi against Casillas was in the beginnings of the Argentine star when he scored an unforgettable "hat-trick" against him when he was only nineteen years old
And Messi expressed years ago, his surprise at the fact that Casillas was one of the goalkeepers most receptive to his goals, and said: "I always feel surprised by the number of goals that I scored against Casillas during El Clasico matches."
Gorka Ariesos
Erezuz is one of the historic keepers of Athletic Bilbao, and his confrontations with Messi have been repeated for more than a decade, knowing that he retired from football last year, after also playing for Espanyol, Eibar and Girona.
Erezuz played 27 games against Messi, conceded 18 goals, and no other goalkeeper has played more matches than against "the flea" of Argentina.
Despite the many goals that hit Erezuz with Messi's feet, the Basque goalkeeper does not forget of course his superiority over Barcelona's captain in 2015 in the Spanish Super Cup, and at that time Bilbao defeated Barca 4-0 in the first leg, before a 1-1 tie.
Diego Alves
Brazilian Diego Alves tops the list of goalkeepers with the most goals by Messi, having conceded 21 goals through the Barcelona captain in 17 games.
Alves fought two long experiences in the Spanish League, the first with Almeria between 2007 and 2011, and the second with Valencia between 2011 and 2017, and he was always distinguished by his superior capabilities in dealing with penalty kicks, and Messi was one of those who failed to implement before him once, but on the other hand he succeeded several times.