Lionel Messi has reached yet another career milestone on Sunday, scoring his 400th La Liga goal for Barcelona against Eibar at the Camp Nou.
He hasn't seemed to want to stop scoring ever since he opened his goal tally for the Catalan giants in 2005 against Albacete, and seems no closer to stopping 14 years on. We've gathered his very best La Liga goals to celebrate the occasion – and here's to many, many more.
Messi has hundreds of goals to cherry-pick from, but his goal against Getafe in La Liga in 2007 has been heralded as his greatest of all-time.
It is with this goal that he announced himself as a permanent threat in world and European football, a Diego Maradona-like individual effort that saw him dance his way past five Getafe defenders – who all ended in a helpless heap on the floor – before keeping his cool against the goalkeeper, sending him the wrong way and slotting in coolly with a right-footed finish.
If his goal against Getafe is his best of all-time, his first ever goal for Barcelona – scored as a then-unknown 17-year-old – is notable not for its splendour, but for its significance. Even as a teenager, though, Messi had the composure and confidence of a veteran footballer.
He refused to have his confidence knocked after having his first goal wrongly ruled offside, and latched onto Ronaldinho's pass inside the box just a minute later before volleying the ball over the top of Albacete stopper Raul Valbuena from 16 yards. The goal was a sign of the incredible things that were soon to come – and what a way to make your first mark on a club.
With his strike against Real Zaragoza, he offered a display of his very best skills and techniques packaged into one all-encompassing, incredible solo effort.
He was in a planet of class all on his own after scooping up the ball from a tackle on the halfway line before shrugging off multiple defenders, darting towards the box, reducing another defender to a mere sprawling mess on the floor before drilling the ball into the left corner – leaving his teammates jubilant and speechless.
It was as if it was a scene straight from an animated film or a cartoon.
As he swerved this way and that with the ball, knocking any and all opposition out of his path like mere bowling pins, he zig-zagged through the opponent's defence before getting the best of the keeper and striking through cleanly. It was the second goal and the most memorable out of his hat-trick against Valencia that finished in a 3-0 win, and a sublime individual effort.
A classic El Clasico encounter, Messi netted in stoppage time to nick a point for Barcelona in the dying stages of the game after Real Madrid were sure that they had clinched the win when Sergio Ramos headed home with 15 minutes left on the clock.
Messi wasn't about to concede defeat, however. It was game on. He already scored two equalisers in the thrilling match that eventually ended 3-3, and when it looked like Real Madrid were about to claim all three points, Messi controlled Ronaldinho's pass smoothly and fired past a helpless Iker Casillas to mark his first hat-trick of his Barcelona career in the most grandiose of fashions.
It was the year of 2012 that was Messi's golden year, a year in which he seemingly broke every record imaginable and enjoyed great individual and club success. He set a Guinness World Record with his strike against Real Betis in December – the 86th goal of the calendar year for the Argentine and the most goals scored in a calendar year by any player.
It was a goal scored in typical Messi manner as well, picking up Andres Iniesta's layoff and drilling hard into the far corner to break Gerd Muller's record of 86 goals scored in 12 months.
With this strike, the celebration was probably as good as the goal itself. Barcelona fought hard in the Clasico in April 2017 at the Bernabeu to make sure that they wouldn't concede the title to Real Madrid just yet, and the game looked on course to end in a 2-2 draw – until Sergi Roberto's Forrest Gump-esque run in stoppage time gave Jordi Albi the opportunity to lay it off to Messi, who finished the strike beautifully from the edge of the area.
It was his 500th Barcelona goal and memorable for his celebration, in which he simply stood in front of the Real Madrid fans, bearing the back of his shirt as they jeered relentlessly. You know the name.
Messi's hat-tricks are all special, but his three strikes against Deportivo in 2018 ensured that Barcelona won the league title firmly on their own terms. It's the first of the trio that is the most remarkable, a first-time volley into the box parried by Luis Suarez, but the finish and execution was all Messi as it required some neat dribbling for the build-up inside the penalty area.
These were the goals that moved Messi up ahead of Mohamed Salah in the race for the European Golden Shoe.
It was Guardiola’s last game in charge at the Nou Camp and Messi marked it by scoring four. It was the goal that completed his 20th hat-trick for Barcelona that was probably the best.
As with so many other strikes it was his first touch that took him past the defender, beaten not by his dribbling but by his sublime control. The shot into the far corner past Cristian Alvarez wasn’t bad either.
It was a goal scored from a free-kick, but it was a delectable effort nonetheless. Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi scored twice in this thrilling encounter in 2012 that ended 2-2, with the Argentine missing the opportunity to score a hat-trick after firing wide from Alba's layoff.
It's one of his most dazzling and remarkable set-piece efforts, however, fizzing a dipping and low-curling strike over the wall that sent the home fans into thrilled raptures.
There is simply no other player who can execute such fine control of the ball as Messi. After easing coolly past two defenders, he gently toes the ball past the Bilbao keeper to level the scoreline in the game.
The strike would have been nothing without Thiago's pass, but it was Messi who did everything for the finished product – an incredible show of magic that only he is capable of.
