FC Barcelona Nears Milestone: One Goal Away from 11,000

The FC Barcelona squad is on the cusp of reaching a historic milestone, with just one goal needed to achieve the remarkable feat of 11,000 goals in official matches. Should Xavi Hernandez’s team open the scoring at Balaídos, they will mark another millenary goal. Notably, Lionel Messi secured the 10,000th goal on February 17, 2016, during a Sporting-Barça match (1-3) in La Liga. It’s worth mentioning that the Copa de Oro “Argentina” (precursor to the Spanish Supercopa) won by Barcelona against Athletic (5-4) in Les Corts on December 23, 1945, is considered official in this tally, despite the club not recognizing it as such.

On the upcoming Saturday, in the team’s 4,820th official match, Barcelona has the opportunity to hit the 11,000-goal mark. This count encompasses various Catalan competitions (Copa Macaya, Copa Barcelona, Campionat de Catalunya, Lliga Catalana, Copa Generalitat, Copa Catalunya, and Supercopa), Spanish competitions (La Liga, Copa del Rey, Preliminary Copa 1913, Liga Mediterránea, Promoción, Copa de Oro, Copa Eva Duarte, Supercopa, and Copa de la Liga), and international competitions (Copa de Europa, Champions League, Recopa, UEFA Cup, Fairs Cup, Fairs Cup Final, Europa League, Supercup, Intercontinental Cup, Club World Cup, Pyrenees Cup Challenge, and Latin Cup).

Interestingly, the 11,000th goal could occur exactly eight years after Messi’s historic 10,000th goal at El Molinón. The journey to this point started with Girvan in 1900, followed by milestones from Samitier (1,000 in 1924), Escolà (2,000 in 1935), Seguer (3,000 in 1949), Evaristo (4,000 in 1959), Rexach (5,000 in 1970), Maradona (6,000 in 1983), Laudrup (7,000 in 1993), Moisés (8,000 in 2001), Messi (9,000 in 2010), and Messi (10,000 in 2016).

As per Barcelona’s official records, the current goal tally stands at 10,994, excluding the Copa de Oro “Argentina,” a competition held in December 1945 that the club doesn’t consider official.