At the moment, everybody knows that Messi has broken Muller’s forty-year old record of scoring the maximum number of goals in one calendar year, but Zambia FA and Brazilian club Flamengo have now come forward and challenged Messi’s record saying their own players have scored more goals than Argentinean player in one calendar year. Zambia FA says it has sufficient evidence that shows that their club Kabwe Warriors’ striker Godfrey Chitalu has already scored 107 goals back in 1972, which is much more than the number set by Barca player. On the other hand, Brazilian club Flamengo has its own claim that says former Brazil captain Zico has also scored 89 goals back in 1979. In an interview given to a Brazilian sports daily, Bruno Lucena, head of Flamengo’s research and statistics department, said, “We are upset. Messi still hasn’t passed the milestone.” He also presented a whole list with all the goals fired by former Brazilian that include 81 goals for Flamengo in 1979, seven for Brazil, and one while playing a friendly between Argentina and Rest of the World XI.
He also added and said that Zico could not play for two months in that year else his record would have surely crossed 100 goals landmark. Anyways, nobody knows the reality of their claims coz if this would have been true, why did not they raise an alarm about Muller’s record? On the other side, no one seems to be stopping Messi who scored two more goals in Wednesday’s King’s Cup last-16 first leg at Cordoba.
It now depends upon the quality and reliability of the documentary evidence they are promising to produce to FIFA, and if there is even an iota of truth in any of these claims, it would be a great setback for Argentinian star who still has to play one more match this calendar year. Anyways, everybody knows that both Godfrey Chitalu and Zico were star soccer players, but did they break any record is to be decided by FIFA. Since, Messi has scored 88 goals this year, and if he also fires one more goal; he will clearly suppress Zico’s record, if any, but Chitalu’s claim will still exist. Whether it is a publicity stunt or anything else is to be seen in next few weeks, when FIFA’s concerned department will analysis all the facts about both challenging parties. Until then, hail our star striker Lionel Messi!