IFFHS NEWS AND STATISTICS OF THE WEEK 27
Picture : Lionel Messi entered in the 700 Goals Club against Atlético de Madrid last week !
IFFHS NEWS AND STATISTICS OF THE WEEK 27
700 GOALS FOR MESSI
On Tuesday night, June 30th 2020, Lionel Messi who is often regarded as the most gifted and greatest footballer of the 21st century scored his 700th official career goal for club and country. This milestone was achieved in his 862th match when he scored a Panenka penalty against Jan Oblak of Atletico Madrid in a 2-2 draw match during the Round 33 of Laliga fixtures.
This achievement is absolutely astounding and remarkable considering the fact that he is more of a playmaker than a center forward. Amongst his playmaking skills are his divine abilities to skip past opposition players easily as though they didn’t exist, the unselfish ability in creating several goal-scoring chances for his teammates and has recorded 294 official assists for both club and country.
Other footballers in the 700 goal-club are Pele, Josef Bican, Romario, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ferenc Puskas and Gerd Muller.
A breakdown of Messi’s 700 career goals per season :
Season number of goals
2004-005 1
2005-06 10
2006-07 21
2007-08 19
2008-09 41
2009-10 48
2010-11 57
2011-12 82
2012-13 69
2013-14 48
2014-15 62
2015-16 50
2016-17 57
2017-18 52
2018-19 54
2019-20 29 {still playing}
Lionel Messi is the Only Player in History with the most number of IFFHS awards (10) as well as the only player to have won the IFFHS award in 3 different categories :
4-time IFFHS World’s Best Playmaker (2015, 2016, 2017, 2019)
4-time IFFHS World’s Best Top Division Goal Scorer (2012, 2013, 2017, 2018)
2-time IFFHS World’s Best International Top Goal Scorer (2011, 2012)
SCHEDULE WOMAN UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINALS
The Tournament will be held in Spain at end August and crown the Best Team of the Season. Olympique Lyonnais, winner of the Trophy in the last Four years, will keep his domination and has already signed many great players like Sakina Karchaoui (picture down) ! Ada Hegerberg, injured since 5 months, is also back on the field and will be in her best form in August. Lyon is again the favorite of the competition !
SOME NEW CONTRACTS
Maurizio Pochettino, 19 years, son of Mauricio Pochettino, has signed with Tottenham Hotspurs.
Arjen Robben, 36, came back after ending his career with FC Bayern and signed in his first club, FC Groningen in the Netherlands.
Exchange between FC Barcelona and FC Juve : Arthur, the Brazilian goes to Juve : Miralem Pjanic, from Bosnia, signs in Barcelona.
CAF EXECUTIVE MEETING RESCHEDULES AFCON 2021, CHAN 2020.
The meeting that held by video-conference today, Tuesday, June 30th to discuss the fate of the Confederation’s competitions in the wake of the ravaging Covid-19 pandemic took close to a dozen decisions.
The Total Africa Cup of Nations, Cameroon 2021 initially scheduled for January 9th to February 6th, 2021 will now be held in January 2022. The exact dates as well as when the qualifiers that were suspended with only four playing days to go would resume will be communicated subsequently.
Although the CAF boss, Ahmad Ahmad expressed satisfaction with Cameroon readiness to host both competitions, it was decided that the African Championships, CHAN, will now take place in January, 2021.
The Total CAF Champions League, and Total CAF Confederation Cup will resume in September with a Final Four format, with semi-final matches to be played in a single match. While the venue for the Champions League Final Four is still to be decided upon, Morocco will host the Confederations Final Four.
While constraints have prompted the cancellation of the 2020 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, the CAF Women’s Champions League will be launched in 2021 using a format and other details still to be announced.
Arrangements for the zonal qualifiers of the U-20 and U-17 Africa Cup of Nations would be finalized in a proposed meeting of the stake holders. For now, the U-17 AFCON will take place in July, 2021.
The meeting also discussed the CAF Headquarters Agreement, fixed the 42nd CAF Ordinary General Assembly for December 2020 in Addis Ababa, cancelled the 2020 CAF Awards, allocated an additional $US 16.2 millions to assist member associations in the wake of the Covid-19, confirmed Moroccan Ali Aissaoui as Commercial Director, and resolved to continue with the implementation of the major points in view of achieving the envisaged transformation of CAF in 2021.