It looks like Lionel Messi has done something historical and will continue to add to it. The question here is exactly what has Messi done? Has he simply broken the Spanish League record or has he done more... like broken or approaching what could best be described as a World Record for club goals? Who holds the single season record for most goals for their club (including all cup competitions like Champions league, Europa, League Cup, FA Cup etc. but not friendlies)? Is it now Messi with his 48 for 2010-2011 season as I write this on April 14, 2011? I think a fair and comprehensive analysis would be to check the goal totals for at least the top 10 leagues all time...Spain, England, Italy, Germany, France, Holland, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico for as far back as accurate records go.
http://www.myfootballfacts.com/Top_Flight_Highest_Goalscorers.html says the record for goals in a season in the top level in England is 60 for Dixie Dean of Everton in 1927-1928.
intersting. So Ruthian and not as widely known as Babe Ruth's 60 home run season in Baseball. I wonder if Everton played in any cup matches that season and if so did Dixie Dean score any additional goals? Then there are the other leagues to consider.
I found on the Everton web site that Dixie Dean's "All Competitions" number for 1927-1928 season was 63 goals. He apparently scored 3 goals in the FA cup that year in addition to his 60 league goals. http://www.evertonfc.com/stats/?mode=season&era_id=1&season_id=37&seasons=37 So "63" is the number for now. By "The Number" I mean the all competitions number that is what I would call the club Worlds Record for goals in a season. This record for Dean came about three years after the FA went to the modern "two opponents" offside rule so he's good that way. It seems England presents the most opportunities for Soccer's magic number with long season combined with FA, league cup, and Europe. We know from Messi getting his 48th goal that it was pretty well publicized that Ronaldo had the Spanish record previously with 47 goals in all competitions. I did a cursory review of the most prolific current and historical goal scorers in the Italian league but it's rare that anyone even gets close to 40 so I don't think we would find "The Number" there.
66. This deserves a separate reply. One word- PELE. In 1958 Pele scored 66 goals (58 league + 8 tournament) in all competitions for his beloved Santos. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offside_(association_football) "a record that stands today" as it is written in Wikipedia. I think this is "The Number" I've been after. 66. It has a nice ring to it. Easy to remember. This is the record that all strikers should aspire to. There will be debates about which is the greater feat, the 63 by Dean in England vs. the 66 in Brazil but for me 66 is the number. Brazil is considered one of the top ten Soccer leagues in the world by most people and the fact that it's Pele seems to add credibility. I tried to find out about French league, Dutch League, German, Mexican, Argentina, and Russian league all time single season goal scorers but it get's a little harder to find anything. Anything definitive for any or all of these would be greatly appreciated.
Good call. 67 goals in 44 league apps, plus a few more in cup competition. I don't know anything about the ASL, but possibly quality of play factors into this?
So I guess we don't know for sure. It's like if we took the baseball home run dilemma of Ruth's 60 vs Maris's 61 vs Bonds's 73 but multiply it by about 10 because we're dealing with multiple leagues, not one league. One can safely say that Messi, now at 52 total goals for 2010-2011 as this reply is written is moving into some very select company. When you look at the different leagues' respective histories the season goal leader was often 30 to 40. When you see a number in the 50's or 60's it looks like a statistical outlier by comparison and because it is so rare.
No one has surpassed the KING of Football in world record: http://espn.go.com/classic/s/add_pele.html Wednesday, November 19, 2003 Leader of a Nation By Gentry Kirby Special to ESPN.com "Odds 'N' Ends At 15, Pele signed his first contract - for $10 a month in 1956 with his club team, Santos. After Pele bought a gas stove for his mother, she thanked him profusely and then told everyone to keep secret the fact that they couldn't use it. Their town did not have the capability to pipe gas into homes. In 1959, Pele had his highest season total with 129 goals. " Pele scored five goals in a game six times, four goals on 30 occasions and a hat trick 92 times.
Messi at 52 total goals for the 2010-2011 season with one massive match left to play. I thought he'd be up to around 56 or 57 by now but manager held him out of the last two (meaningless) league matches in prepartion for the Champions League final against Manchester United.
...And one last big goal in the Champions League Final bringing Messi's final total for 2010-2011season to 53 goals in all competitions.
Here's a closer look at Pele's goalscoring prowess in Brazil playing for Santos: The Pelé League Record 1957 - 1974 His complete statistics covering games in all categories: Pelé Career Stats And while I'm at it, his record against European clubs: Pele vs. European Opposition
Gerd Müller's record season was 1972-73 when he scored 36 goals (Bundesliga, 33 games - 6 penalties) 7 goals (German Cup, 5 games - 2 penalties) 11 goals (European Cup, 6 games - 0 penalties) 54 goals in 44 games (8 penalties) Additionally he scored 6 goals for West Germany (5 games, 1 penalty). As can be seen here: The Gerd Müller Goal Story
Godfrey 'Ucar' Chitalu, Zambia's coach who died with the team in the 1993 air disaster, is said to have scored 107 goals in all competitions in 1972, although this could be a myth. I don't know how many of those would be official or league goals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfrey_Chitalu
and his 12 goals in 5 german leaque cup games doesent count?? 1860 munich-bayern 1:3 (2 goals müller) vfb stuttgart-bayern 2:3 (3 goals müller) bayern hof - bayern 4:1 (1 goal müller) bayern-1860 munich 5:3 (3 goals müller) bayern - bayern hof 4:5 (3 goals müller) bayern 15 goals conceeded..horrible...
I think there are several Hungarians who have broke the 50 goal mark. Ferenc Deak scored 66 solely in league play in the 45-46 season. I'm pretty sure this is the European record.
Lionel Messi, 73 goals in all competitions for Barcelona in 2011-2012 season. That's the world's record for goals in a single season. It was fun to watch Messi achieve this record.
Godfrey "UCAR" Chitalu (October 22, 1947 – April 27, 1993) was a Zambian footballer who is regarded as the greatest Zambian player ever and holds the national team goal-scoring record. Nicknamed 'Ucar', Chitalu was a forceful and often temperamental target man who was Zambian footballer of the year a record five times and in 1972 rewrote the record books by scoring 107 goals in all competitions in a single season. Awesome!