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.
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

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
However, if the Bayern man were to claim a 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'...