By Doga Kirmizioglu
ANKARA
Barcelona’s Argentine star Lionel Messi has come close to breaking another record, this time in Europe's most prestigious football tournament: the Champions League.
Scoring twice in the 2-0 victory on Wednesday against Dutch club Ajax Amsterdam, Messi equalized the record held by Real Madrid's legendary striker Raul Gonzalez, commonly referred to as Raul, as top scorer in Champions League history, with 71 goals.
Making his debut in the Champions League 10 years ago, the 27-year-old Barcelona star is the only player to have been the top scorer in the European tournament four times in a row (2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012).
He has won the tournament with Barcelona three times (2006, 2009, 2011).
His most prolific season in Champions League was in 2011-12 when he found the back of the net 14 times. He had four hat-tricks - another record. Barcelona eventually lost to English club Chelsea in the semifinals.
In the 2008-09 season, he had 9 goals, helping Barcelona win it all against Manchester United in the final.
He scored 8 goals in the Champions League 2009-10 season but could not prevent Barcelona from being eliminated in the semifinals by Italian club Inter Milan.
In the 2010-11 season, Barcelona toppled Manchester United in the final once again, Messi found the net 12 times in Champions League in that season.
On a side note, Messi also managed to score goals in 21 different European cities so far.
Messi was also the first player to be awarded the FIFA Ballon d'Or award four times - consecutively between 2009 and 2012 - the European Golden Shoe three times (2010, 2012 and 2013) and the Best Player of 2014 FIFA World Cup award. In addition, he has been chosen as UEFA’s Best Player in Europe in 2011.
Awards that will continue to fuel arguments on whether or not Lionel Messi is the best player in the world.
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