{"id":42352,"date":"2021-05-04T17:42:56","date_gmt":"2021-05-04T17:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?p=42352"},"modified":"2021-05-04T16:21:05","modified_gmt":"2021-05-04T16:21:05","slug":"messi-close-to-breaking-diego-maradonas-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/messi-close-to-breaking-diego-maradonas-record","title":{"rendered":"Messi close to breaking Diego Maradona\u2019s record"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Nigeria<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Barcelona captain, Lionel Messi, is closing in on the late Argentina legend, Diego Maradona\u2019s record of 59 career freekicks after scoring in a brace in his side\u2019s LaLiga 3-2 win over Valencia on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Messi\u2019s freekick against Valencia over the weekend was his 50th in a Barcelona shirt.<\/p>\n

The Argentina captain found the net against Jasper Cillessen in the second half at Mestalla.<\/p>\n

In doing so, Messi brought his total freekick tally to 56, with club and country.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s only three off Maradona\u2019s Argentina record of 59 career freekicks.<\/p>\n

Messi has already overtaken Manuel Pelegrina\u2019s 45 and Daniel Passarella\u2019s 43 in terms of countrymen\u2019s freekick totals.<\/p>\n

Messi will now hope to continue his impressive display when Barcelona tackle Atletico Madrid on May 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. Barcelona captain, Lionel Messi, is closing in on the late Argentina legend, Diego Maradona\u2019s record of 59 career freekicks after scoring in a brace in his side\u2019s LaLiga 3-2 win over Valencia on Sunday. Messi\u2019s freekick against Valencia over the weekend was his 50th in a Barcelona shirt. The Argentina captain found […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":42351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,18,26],"tags":[1570,2140,1701,1629,254],"class_list":["post-42352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-diego-maradona","tag-messi","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"\nMessi close to breaking Diego Maradona\u2019s record - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Barcelona captain, Lionel Messi, is closing in on the late Argentina legend, Diego Maradona\u2019s record of 59 career freeki ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/messi-close-to-breaking-diego-maradonas-record\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Messi close to breaking Diego Maradona\u2019s record\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Barcelona captain, Lionel Messi, is closing in on the late Argentina legend, Diego Maradona\u2019s record of 59 career freeki ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/messi-close-to-breaking-diego-maradonas-record\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-04T17:42:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/05\/img-609174536e78c.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/messi-close-to-breaking-diego-maradonas-record#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/messi-close-to-breaking-diego-maradonas-record\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Messi close to breaking Diego Maradona\u2019s record\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-04T17:42:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/messi-close-to-breaking-diego-maradonas-record\"},\"wordCount\":136,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/messi-close-to-breaking-diego-maradonas-record#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/05\/img-609174536e78c.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Nigeria\",\"Diego Maradona\",\"messi\",\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/messi-close-to-breaking-diego-maradonas-record#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/messi-close-to-breaking-diego-maradonas-record\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/messi-close-to-breaking-diego-maradonas-record\",\"name\":\"Messi close to breaking Diego Maradona\u2019s record - 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