The Argentine Lionel Messi was on Saturday the best marker of the regular phase of the American football championship (MLS) for the second consecutive year, a fact unprecedented in the competition, counting 10 titles of ‘king’ of the winners in national championships.
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08/11/2026
by
Lusa
Adespite having stayed in ‘white’ at Inter Miami's 3-3 reception to Charlotte, the 39-year-old player closed the race at the top of the scorers, with 26 goals, four more than the Croatian and former Benfiquist Petar Musa (FC Dallas), second.
Messi, who added 14 assists, for a total of 40 contributions to goal, in only 31 games, had already been the ‘king’ in 2025, then with 29 tries, in 28 meetings.
In the history of MLS, never had a player been able to revalidate the title of best scorer, and the Argentinean is also a strong candidate for a third title of ‘Most Valuable Player’ (MVP) of the race, which has already snatched in 2024 and 2025.
Messi, who has played at Inter Miami since the mid-2023s, totals 76 goals and 42 assists in 84 games in the regular MLS phase, to which he joins seven goals and eight assists in the play-offs, which in 2026 will compete for the third time.
The Inter Miami ended in second place of the Conference This, with 60 points, in 24 games, and in the first round of the play-offs will face Columbus Crew, seventh, with 47, in a knockout to the best of three games.
As for the regular season, Messi now has two best scorer titles, which adds to the record of eight he got in the Spanish League, serving FC Barcelona.
The Argentine was the ‘king’ of the La Liga goalkeepers, proof that it is the best scorer in the history of the competition (474 goals, in 520 games), in 2009/10, 2011/12, 2012/13, 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21.
Messi was the best championship scorer on 10 occasions.
In 2026, Messi totals 41 goals and 22 assists, in 48 games, including eight goals and four assists in the final round of the World Cup, records that earned him fifth place in the Golden Ball election, won by Englishman Harry Kane.
In terms of career in senior teams, and including 27 in Argentina's sub-20 and sub-23 and FC Barcelona's B and C teams, now counts 964 tryouts and 444 assists, a total of 1,408 contributions to goal in 1,240 games.
As for the number of total goals, Cristiano Ronaldo only loses to Portuguese, which adds 990 in his career in senior teams, 838 in clubs (450 in Real Madrid, 145 in Manchester United, 137 in Al Nassr, 101 in Juventus and five in Sporting) and 152 in Portuguese teams (146 in the main, three in the sub-21, two in the Olympic and one in the sub-20), in 1,363 games, since 2002/03.
For the generality of the publications, the accounting goes in 985 goals, since the six goals are not counted in the Olympic selections, sub-21 and sub-20 and enters into the accounts Andrei Girotto's recent goal in Al Faysaly-Al Nassr.
With regard to titles of best championship scorer, Ronaldo has six in four countries: one in England (2007/08), three in Spain (2010/11, 2013/14 and 2014/15), one in Italy (2020/21) and one in Saudi Arabia (2023/24).