Lionel Messi keeps adding chapters to a remarkable career. Another free-kick goal has taken him a step closer to a historic record, defying his advancing age and the approaching final stage of his time on the pitch.
Messi curled home a free-kick in Inter Miami's 2-2 draw with San Diego on matchday 26 of the American league. That took him to 75 free-kick goals across his career, leaving him just three short of equalling the record and four away from sole ownership of top spot.
Messi chases a legendary record
According to the Catalan newspaper "Sport", Messi has climbed into sole possession of second place among players with the most free-kick goals, moving clear of Brazil's Jair Rosa Pinto on 74.
Top of the all-time list sits Brazil's Marcelinho Carioca on 78. Messi needs three more to equal that mark, and four to overtake it and claim top spot outright.
The tally counts direct free-kick goals in first-division league matches only, excluding Olympic goals and indirect free-kicks, based on the records used by a number of historians and statisticians.
His latest strike lifts Messi above a string of football legends. He has already left behind big names such as Roberto Dinamite, Sinisa Mihajlovic, Juninho Pernambucano and Marcos Assuncao.
Well clear now, too, is his historic rival Cristiano Ronaldo on 64, while Ronaldinho and Diego Maradona both sit on 59.
Four free-kick goals. That is all Messi needs to stand alone at the top of another historic list, one more record for a career already stuffed with them.
His Inter Miami contract runs until 2028, so the Argentine still has plenty of time to get there.