Lionel Messi: The 20 greatest goals of Barcelona star's career have been ranked

Six hundred and forty-four goals.

That’s the incredible number of goals Lionel Messi has now scored for Barcelona.

In reaching that tally, he broke Pele’s record of the most amount of goals scored for a single club.

Incredible.

As well as Messi’s 644 goals for Barcelona, he’s also notched 71 for Argentina.

But which one is his best?

Well, incredible work from FootballCritic has answered that very question.

In fact, they’ve ranked Messi’s 50 greatest goals from 50-1.

To do so, they looked at five categories: Aesthetically Pleasing (out of 30): How enjoyable was the goal to watch? Technical Difficulty (out of 30): How hard is it for a professional player to score a goal like this? Uniqueness (out of 20): Has this goal been seen many times before, or is it one-of-a-kind? Importance (out of 10): Was the effort the fifth in a 5-0 win, or the winner in the Champions League final? Standard of Opposition (out of 10): How good was the team that the goal was scored against?

It formed a top 50 which you can check out here.

Below is the top 20 with FootballCritic’s verdict on each goal, explaining why it ranked where it did.

Enjoy the 20 greatest goals from the greatest player to have played the game.

20 | Celtic vs Barcelona

FootballCritic say: “An underrated gem from a young Messi starring with Ronaldinho and Thierry Henry together.”

19 | Barcelona vs Liverpool

FootballCritic say: “Probably Messi's best set piece goal - but it's close.”

18 | Barcelona vs Lyon

FootballCritic say: “An early glimpse of all the attributes that would make Messi the King.”

17 | Barcelona vs Man Utd

FootballCritic say: “The birth of Ballon d'Or winning Messi as Pep's Barca arrives.”

16 | Sevilla vs Barcelona

FootballCritic say: “A severely underappreciated and underrated volley.”

15 | Barcelona vs Real Madrid

FootballCritic say: “The game that announced Messi to the world with a superb hat-trick, with this one being the best of the bunch.”

14 | Argentina vs Mexico

FootballCritic say: “An early message of how special Messi was. Just 20, and with illustrious Argentine team-mates aware what this goal represented.”

13 | Barcelona vs Roma

FootballCritic say: “Perhaps this is peak MSN. A goal of baffling difficulty and immense beauty.”

12 | Basel vs Barcelona

FootballCritic say: “A shame that this goal arrived in just a regular group stage win, because it's a forgotten classic where Messi plays second fiddle to Alves' brilliance.”

11 | Real Zaragoza vs Barcelona

FootballCritic say: “An individual goal that contains all of Messi's innate football knowledge in a single six-second clip.”

10 | Barcelona vs Real Sociedad

FootballCritic say: “Only loses marks because of the importance of the goal and quality of the opposition, but the rest of this is of the highest standard.”

9 | Real Betis vs Barcelona

FootballCritic say: “Messi's Puskas Winning Goal and while brilliant, it's not in his top five goals.”

8 | Barcelona vs Malaga

FootballCritic say: “A virtually impossible goal from where he collects, but there's not an ounce of luck involved to get the ball into the net.”

7 | Barcelona vs Bayern Munich

FootballCritic say: “Critics will point to Boateng's meme-tastic defending, but it's still a wonderfully iconic goal.”

6 | Atletico Madrid vs Barcelona

FootballCritic say: “Messi's best free kick, and one of the best free kicks you'll ever see.”

5 | Barcelona vs Getafe

FootballCritic say: “The standard of competition and opponent means a loss of marks - otherwise it's the perfect goal.”

4 | Barcelona vs Arsenal

FootballCritic say: “The type of goal that defines a genius.”

3 | Real Madrid vs Barcelona

FootballCritic say: "One of the greatest goals ever scored in Spanish football - Messi just happened to finish things off - queue crazy shirt celebrations in the Bernabeu."