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Discrepancies over Telmo Zarra’s La Liga goal tally has cast a shadow on Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi’s achievement of breaking the Athletic Bilbao legend‘s record on Sunday against Sevilla. Messi scored a hat-trick to score his 251st, 252nd and 253rd goals in the Spanish League in the 5-1 win over Sevilla at the Nou Camp. However, conflicting figures for the late Basue forward according to different sources.
Official figures put it at 251 goals but numbers vary from 242 to as many as 265. Th reasons for difference in data are many. Players didn’t wear shirts with numbers until 1947-48 season leading to confusion over whom to credit the goal to. The forward’s career started in 1940 and ended in 1955. Information about goalscorers began to be noted by referees only after 1952-53 when the Pichichi award. Journalists interpreted deflected goals in their own way and in some cases one goal was credited to defender and striker by different media outlets.
Earlier, Zarra’s daughter had said that despite scoring goals Messi has not broken her father’s record.
Carmen added: "We don’t know clear statistics for my father. Athletic said that he scored 251 on their website, but others sources said that he scored 253.
"Messi will overcome his figures because he is an excellent player but he played 12 matches more than my father.
"He scored more goals but I think that the media are wrong when say that he beat my father’s record." Carmen Zarra told Cope.
Here are the figures according to the various sources as reported by Spanish site AS:
251 – Online database. Spanish Professional Football League (LFP)
251 – Online database. Athletic Club*
255 - Football historian Bernardo Salazar
257 – Collection of Football Calendars ‘Dinámico’
257 – ‘Historia y estadística del fútbol español’ by Vicente Martínez Calatrava
248 – ‘Historia del Campeonato Nacional de Liga’ by Ramón Melcón
252 – Archives library, Sports daily ‘Marca’
254 – Archives library, Sports daily ‘Mundo Deportivo’
258 - Spanish Football History and Statistics Centre (CIHEFE)
In the end AS concluded from their research that Zarra’s tally is 253. If that is true, Messi is only equal to that number and is yet to surpass it.
