How Lionel Messi reached his 500-goal milestone for Barcelona and Argentina

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Lionel Messi: The numbers behind his 500 goal tally

Lionel Messi took his career goals tally to 500 when he scored in Barcelona's surprise 2-1 home defeat by Spanish La Liga rivals Valencia.

It is the latest landmark in a remarkable career and comes less than 11 years after the then 17-year-old's first senior goal against Albacete in May 2005.

"The figure is from another galaxy," said Barca boss Luis Enrique when asked about the achievement.

Here, we take a closer look at how the Argentina forward reached the landmark for club and country.

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Messi is something of a slow starter with only 50 of his 500 goals coming in the first 15 minutes - but look how ruthless he is after 75 minutes

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Want to stop Messi scoring? Stop him shooting with his left foot would be a good start. That said, he's not bad with his right foot. Or his head.

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Messi is now on 42 goals for the season so still has some way to go to reach 82 - the number he managed in 2011-12

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Atletico Madrid and Sevilla have reason to fear Messi most - he's scored 25 goals against each of them. That's four more than he's managed against Real Madrid

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No surprise that the majority of Messi's 500 goals have come in La Liga. He will be keen to increase his World Cup goal account in Russia in 2018 - provided Argentina qualify.

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Messi and Real Madrid's Ronaldo - his great rival - have scored 1,039 career goals between them

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Barcelona right-back Dani Alves has linked up superbly with his team-mate over the years

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Messi became the first player to score five goals in a Champions League fixture when Barcelona crushed Bayer Leverkusen 7-1 in 2012

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Messi's strike-rates for club and country show he is not as potent at international level

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