Messi has scored in every minute except the first

Lionel Messi has scored in every legal minute from the second to the 90th, but never in the first minute of a match.

A strange gap in a huge scoring record

The statistic has held even after more than 800 official senior goals. According to the IFFHS, Messi’s strike against Australia in 2023, timed at 1:19, was his quickest career goal at that point.

That goal added the second minute to the list of minutes in which he has scored, leaving only the first minute absent from his record. Before that, his fastest goal had come in the 2:07th minute against Chelsea in the Champions League in 2018.

Goals across the full clock

Transfermarkt’s minute-by-minute data shows Messi has scored across the spread of his career for Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Miami and Argentina. He has also scored in added time on multiple occasions.

The numbers leave one odd blind spot in an otherwise complete scoring record: the first 60 seconds of a match remain the only part of the clock he has not beaten.