Lionel Messi made it five Ligue 1 appearances in a row without a goal on Friday evening.

The Argentine is yet to get off the mark in league action for new club Paris Saint-Germain and was hauled off at half-time in the 2-1 victory versus Lille as a 'precaution'.

Messi was an injury doubt going into the match and it was evident from kick-off that he was nowhere near fit enough to be playing from the start at the Parc des Princes.

The 34-year-old's ongoing struggles at PSG since joining from Barcelona in the summer mean he's unlikely to match eternal rival Cristiano Ronaldo's goal tally for club and country since the start of 2020 anytime soon.

At the time of writing, Messi trails the Portuguese superstar in that regard by a whopping 16 goals, despite having played more games.

Transfermarkt have kindly provided the numbers and while Ronaldo's total is mighty impressive for a 36-year-old, it's still mighty inferior to the superhuman one possessed by Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski.

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Take a look for yourself...

The 10 players with the most goals since 2020

10. Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur & England) - 56 goals

9. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid & France) - 58 goals

8. Ciro Immobile (Lazio & Italy) - 58 goals

7. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool & Egypt) - 58 goals

6. Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain & France) - 66 goals

5. Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain & France) - 67 goals

4. Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea & Belgium) - 70 goals

3. Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund & Norway) - 82 goals

2. Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United & Portugal) - 83 goals

1. Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich & Poland) - 101 goals

The top 10 goalscorers

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Do not adjust your screen, Lewandowski really has scored 101 goals in less than two years and 34 more than Messi - madness.

It's absolutely criminal that France Football opted to not award a player the Ballon d'Or in 2020, because the Polish goal-machine was a deserving winner.

Lewandowski is also in the running to win the accolade this year, but faces stiff competition from Messi - who guided Argentina to Copa America glory back in the summer.

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However, if the Bayern man were to claim a shock victory at the ceremony in Paris on November 29th, no one could have any real complaints.

As the famous saying goes, 'the stats don't lie'...

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