Lionel Messi continues to break records while in the twilight of his career – but one stat has proved impossible for even him to top.
The Argentine’s eight Ballons d’Or may be considered his crowning individual achievement, but his 91 goals in 2012 remain as impressive.
At age 25, he was somehow just nine strikes away from reaching triple figures for club and country in a calendar year.
Messi shattered Germany legend Gerd Muller’s haul of 85 goals that had stood since 1972 en route to capping a historic year for Barcelona.
Over a decade later, neither of Cristiano Ronaldo or Robert Lewandowski‘s best yearly returns have come close to breaking it.
With none of Viktor Gyokeres, Harry Kane, or Erling Haaland even reaching half-a-century in 2024 it won’t be in danger anytime soon.
Curiously, 2012 is almost as famous in Messi’s career for the games he didn’t win – the penalty miss against Chelsea, that defeat to Celtic, and that Ronaldo Clasico stalemate.
Messi increased Muller’s record by around seven per cent – if that doesn’t sound like much then let’s take a deeper look.
For context, it would be the same as LeBron James upping Wilt Chamberlain’s 4,029-point haul from the 1961/62 NBA season by 282.
Continuing that metric, Aaron Judge would need an extra five home runs to stretch Barry Bonds’ 2001 record of 73 by the same amount.
Messi averaged a goal every 66 minutes he was on the pitch in 2012, with 78 of his 91 goals coming from inside the penalty area.
What’s even crazier is that the now-Inter Miami star does have a case to claim the real figure is 97 – and not in the way Pele counted his goals…
January (7 goals)
As the record is purely for a single calendar year, let’s not forget Messi was halfway through a season when he entered 2012.
The forward had already netted 27 goals for Barcelona in the first half of the 2011/12 campaign and hit the ground running in the New Year.
Four days into January, Messi followed a Cesc Fabregas brace by scoring twice late on in a 4-0 win over Osasuna in the Copa del Rey.
He hadn’t even started the match but bagged the first of his 91 haul with a close-range header after being introduced as a substitute.
Messi went on to add another five after that match, while also being awarded the Ballon d’Or for a third consecutive year in mid-January.
- 4th – Two goals vs. Osasuna in Copa Del Rey (4-0)
- 15th – Two goals vs. Real Betis (4-2)
- 22nd – Three goals vs. Malaga (4-1)
February (10 goals – 17 total)
Messi brought his dazzling form into the international stage, with a hat-trick in Argentina’s 3-1 friendly win away at Switzerland.
He also marked his 200th La Liga appearance in a 5-1 win over Valencia with one of his two four-goal hauls in 2012.
- 4th – One goal vs. Real Sociedad (2-1)
- 14th – One goal vs. Bayer Leverkusen in Champions League (3-1)
- 19th – Four goals vs. Valencia (5-1)
- 26th – One goal vs. Atletico Madrid (2-1)
- 29th – Three goals vs. Switzerland (3-1)
March (13 goals – 30 total)
Being on the scoresheet against Bayer Leverkusen just once wasn’t enough for Messi – so he did it another five times in the second leg.
The No.10 became the first player since the Champions League’s 1992 rebrand to score a quintet in one game.
Fulham and former Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno was the unfortunate victim that Messi chipped twice during a 7-1 rout.
- 7th – Five goals vs. Bayer Leverkusen in Champions League (7-1)
- 11th – Two goals vs. Racing Santander (2-0)
- 17th – One goal vs. Seville (2-0)
- 20th – Three goals vs. Granada (5-3)
- 24th – One goal vs. Real Mallorca (2-0)
- 31st – One goal vs. Athletic Bilbao (2-0)
April (9 Goals – 39 total)
Messi converted 12 of the 13 penalties he took across La Liga and the Champions League in 2012 but his one miss remains the most famous.
Barca’s former captain has a staggering record of 26 goals against the Premier League’s ‘Big Six’ teams – despite never playing in England.
That figure is even more remarkable considering it took him 730 minutes across nine games and 30 shots to notch against Chelsea.
Messi may have been fearing a curse when he smacked the crossbar from 12 yards in a Champions League semi-final with the Blues.
The scores were level on aggregate at the time, with Fernando Torres‘ last-gasp goal eliminating Pep Guardiola‘s defending champions.
- 3rd – Two goals vs. AC Milan in Champions League (3-1)
- 7th – Two goals vs. Real Zaragoza (4-1)
- 10th – One goal vs. Getafe (4-0)
- 14th – Two goals vs. Levante (2-1)
- 29th – Two goals vs. Rayo Vallecano (7-0)
May (8 goals – 47 total)
Barcelona’s season ended in more misery, as the club were pipped to the La Liga title by Real Madrid before Guardiola decided to leave.
However, Messi’s goalscoring feats refused to take a hit despite only playing four matches in May, with seven goals coming in two games.
In a 4-1 win over Malaga at the end of the 2011/12 campaign, the then 24-year-old netted a hat-trick to smash a 39-year record for the most goals in all competitions in a major European league season.
With his 68th goal that term, Messi overtook the first of Muller’s long-standing feats after his tally of 67 in 1973 with Bayern Munich.
His final strike at club level that season helped deliver Barcelona’s 26th Copa Del Rey title following a 3-0 win over Athletic Bilbao.
- 2nd – Three goals vs. Malaga (4-1)
- 5th – Four goals vs. Espanyol (4-0)
- 25th – One goal vs. Athletic Bilbao in Copa Del Rey final (3-0)
June (4 goals – 51 total)
While the two months before brought career disappointments, the start of summer in 2012 delivered heartwarming personal news.
Messi fittingly chose his return to Buenos Aires to tell the world his future wife Antonella Roccuzzo was expecting their first child.
His 23rd goal for Argentina in a World Cup qualifying win over Ecuador saw him celebrate in typical footballer fashion.
Messi placed the ball up his shirt after slamming home from close range after the half-hour mark, with Roccuzzo later confirming she was pregnant on social media.
Clearly on cloud nine, Messi finished for the holidays by taking home the match ball in a 4-3 friendly thriller against arch-rivals Brazil.
- 2nd – One goal vs. Ecuador in World Cup qualifier (4-0)
- 9th – Three goals vs. Brazil (4-3)
July (0 goals/0 games – 51 total)
It’s a little known fact that Messi actually did score three times in the month typically reserved for off-season holidays.
The magician typically bagged a treble in his first game back for pre-season during an 8-0 win over Raja Casablanca in Tangier on July 28.
However, to avoid ‘adding goals scored from his back garden’, as talkSPORT’s Jason Cundy once accused Pele of, we won’t count it!
August (7 goals – 58 total)
Messi hitting the ground running in the 2012/13 campaign should have been no surprise to anyone considering his form in pre-season.
He notched both of Barcelona’s goals in 2-2 draw with Paris Saint-Germain, before netting again in a 2-0 win over Dinamo Bucuresti.
That technically puts his overall tally for 2012 just three shy of a century, but the goals aren’t officially counted – despite the match conditions being the same as Argentina’s 3-1 victory against Germany in an international friendly less than a week later.
Messi did get on the scoresheet in all of Barcelona’s first four competitive matches of the Tito Vilanova era, scoring six times.
This included both legs of the Super Cup against Real Madrid, which made him Barcelona’s all-time top scorer in El Clasico matches.
- 15th – One goal vs. Germany (3-1)
- 19th – Two goals vs. Real Sociedad (5-1)
- 23rd – One goal vs. Real Madrid in Super Cup (3-2)
- 26th – Two goals vs. Osasuna (2-1)
- 29th – One goal vs. Real Madrid in Super Cup (1-2)
September (5 goals – 63 total)
A rare lean month for Messi would ultimately prove pivotal in a bid to reach triple digits for 2012, having blanked in four of his seven games.
Messi hadn’t failed to score in a competitive match for club or country since early May, but was denied in a 1-0 win over Valencia.
A return to Argentina helped him resdiscover his goalscoring touch, with four goals in his next two Barca matches in Mid-September.
However, he was unusually kept out of the headlines in the final two games of the month, despite the Catalans finding the net five times.
- 8th – One goal vs. Paraguay in World Cup qualifier (3-1)
- 15th – Two goals vs. Getafe (4-1)
- 19th – Two goals vs. Spartak Moscow in Champions League (3-2)
October (10 goals – 73 total)
A hugely pivotal month of the year saw the cream rise to the top, with Messi scoring seven club goals and another three for his country.
The first two of which came in an iconic Clasico encounter – the sixth of 2012 – and the neutrals’ fan favourite in his rivalry with Ronaldo.
The pair, who shared the Ballon d’Or from 2008-2017, fittingly scored all four goals between them in a 2-2 draw with two-a-piece.
Messi then proved instrumental in spearheading Argentina’s charge to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, before claiming another match-ball upon his return to Spain.
He closed out the month by finding life tough in a hard-fought battle with Celtic in Europe – which was a sign of things to come…
- 7th – Two goals vs. Real Madrid (2-2)
- 13th – Two goals vs. Uruguay in World Cup qualifier (3-0)
- 17th – One goal vs. Chile in World Cup qualifier (2-1)
- 20th – Three goals vs. Deportivo La Coruna (5-4)
- 27th – Two goals vs. Rayo Vallecano (5-0)
November (9 goals – 82 total)
The penuimate month of the year started with a personal highlight – the birth of his first child, a son Thiago, on November 2.
It’s more than understandable that Messi wasn’t his usual self having failed to score or assist less than 24 hours later against Celta Vigo.
Thiago Messi wouldn’t have to wait too long for his father to dedicate him his first goal – but the circumstances made it a muted affair.
The venue? Celtic Park and Fraser Forster spectacularly making 13 saves as the Bhoys won 2-1, with Messi later describing the goalkeeper’s performance as ‘not human’ and the best he ever saw.
Messi did eventually find a way past the ex-England international from a rebound in injury-time, which was followed by a very low-key suck of the thumb celebration in honour of his son.
- 7th – One goal vs. Celtic in Champions League (1-2)
- 11th – Two goals vs. Real Mallorca (4-2)
- 17th – Two goals vs. Real Zaragoza (3-1)
- 20th – Two goals vs. Spartak Moscow in Champions League (3-0)
- 25th – Two goals vs. Levante (4-0)
December (9 goals – 91 total)
And here we are at last with Messi, the man not just content with breaking Muller’s record but capable of oblierating it.
He drew level with ‘Der Bomber’ with trademark slaloming run and dribble into the box saw him cooly finding the far bottom corner, before the record strike saw him pick out the same spot having been teed up nicely by Andres Iniesta.
Typically, Messi said of the record afterwards: “It’s nice for what it means but the victory is more important.”
Messi avoided questions about heading straight to the beach in his next game after almost missing an open goal from two yards against Cordoba but the ball ricocheted off the underside of the bar and bounced over the line.
His 91st and final goal of 2012 before Spanish football had their winter break came three days before Christmas.
Messi’s trusty left boot saw a side-footed shot fly past now-retired Dani Hernandez as Barca restored their nine-point cushion at the top.
- 1st – Two goals vs. Athletic Bilbao (5-1)
- 9th – Two goals vs. Real Betis (2-1)
- 12th – Two goals vs. Cordoba (0-2) in the Copa del Rey
- 16th – Two goals vs. Atletico Madrid (4-1)
- 22nd – One goal vs. Real Valladolid (1-3)
What were the matches he failed to score in?
There were only 21 of them in 2012!
Messi scored in every competitive match he played in August and December, with just one gameweek blank in both March and May.
January proved to be his most costly month with five goalless games, albeit he did balance that hauls from the three he did score in.
But overall, his goals-per-game were still lower than his other lean month of September, which yielded five strikes and four blanks.
- January 8th – vs. Espanyol (1-1)
- January 12th – vs. Osasuna in Copa Del Rey (2-1)
- January 18th – vs. Real Madrid in Copa Del Rey (2-1)
- January 25th – vs. Real Madrid in Copa Del Rey (2-2)
- January 28th – vs. Villarreal (0-0)
- February 1st – vs. Valencia in Copa Del Rey (1-1)
- February 8th – vs. Valencia in Copa Del Rey (2-0)
- February 11th – vs. Osasuna (2-3)
- March 28th – vs. AC Milan UCL quarter-final, first leg (0-0)
- April 18th – vs. Chelsea UCL semi-final, first leg (0-1)
- April 21st – vs. Real Madrid (1-2)
- April 24th – vs. Chelsea UCL semi-final, second leg (2-2)
- May 12th – vs. Real Betis (2-2)
- September 2nd – vs. Valencia (1-0)
- September 12th – vs. Peru in World Cup qualifier (1-1)
- September 22nd – vs. Granada (2-0)
- September 29th – vs. Seville (3-2)
- October 2nd – vs. Benfica UCL group-stage (2-0)
- October 23rd – vs. Celtic UCL group stage (2-1)
- November 3rd – vs. Celta Vigo (3-1)
- November 14th – vs. Saudi Arabia (0-0)
What came next?
Incredibly, Messi was more than on track to shatter his own record when he returned to action with a vengeance at the start of 2013.
With January proving his undoing the year prior, Messi banged in nine goals in the same period 12 months on.
Seven of those came in Barcelona’s four La Liga games, with at least one in every match to continue an otherworldly run.
In fact, after failing to get on the scorsheet against Celta Vigo in November 2012 – a day after his eldest son was born – Messi scored at least once (30 overall) in all of his following 19 league meetings running until the end of March 2023.
His progress was curtailed by two hamstring injuries suffered in April and May, which meant we will never know what may have happened.