Three records Lionel Messi can break in the 2018/19 season
Lionel Messi has had a career full of spectacular achievements with Barcelona, the club where he will begin his fifteenth full season as a professional. So far, Messi has scored 552 goals in 637 games in the Blaugrana shirt. Also, he has assisted on 212 occasions for the Catalan club.
For the 2018/19 season, the Argentine maestro has quite a lot of pressure on his shoulders, especially after Real Madrid completed a hat-trick of UEFA Champions League titles last season. Barcelona, on the other hand, hasn't been able to advance to the semifinals in each of the previous three years, including the disaster versus Roma in last season's quarterfinals.
Entering the 2018/19 campaign after a massive disappointment in the entiniaFIFA World Cup in Russia, the Argentine is aiming to improve his performances in the knockout stages of the biggest competitions.
Last season, Messi scored 45 goals and gave 18 assists in 54 games. The number 10 led the Spanish League in goals for the fifth time in his career with 34 strikes, helping Barcelona clinch a 25th league title and a 30th Copa Del Rey trophy.
With this in mind, we look at the possible records the 5-time Ballon d'Or winner can break in the upcoming 2018/19 season:
#3 Most Copa del Rey titles for a single player
Barcelona has dominated the Copa del Rey during Messi's rise to the top as one of the two greatest players in the world since 2009. The magical Argentine has already won 6 Copa del Rey titles with the club, including the last four in a row, and played the previous five finals of the tournament consecutively.
Messi ranks in second place in the Copa del Rey titles for a single player, along with current teammates Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets, and former teammate Andrés Iniesta. If Barcelona reigns supreme for the seventh time in ten years and the fifth time in a row, Messi, alongside Piqué and Busquets, would equal Agustín Gaínza's seven title wins with Athletic Bilbao between 1943 and 1958.
Even if Messi fails to reign supreme in this year's domestic cup, and Barcelona make it to the finals, the Argentine legend would play his ninth final of the tournament, which will be the joint-record with Gaínza's nine finals between 1943 and 1958.