Lionel Messi’s goalscoring record belongs to Zambia's Godfrey Chitalu?

Lionel Messi’s record-breaking goalscoring feat has been challenged — by Zambian football chiefs.

Barcelona striker Messi overhauled Gerd Muller’s 40-year record on Sunday for the most goals scored in a calendar year.

Messi took his 2012 tally to 88 last night with both goals in Barca’s 2-0 Copa Del Rey fifth-round victory at Cordoba.

But the Argentina star’s exploits have been questioned by the Zambia FA.

They claim striker Godfrey Chitalu holds the honour after netting a whopping 107 goals in 1972 for Kabwe Warriors.


The Zambian FA told Soccer Laduma that they would present evidence to Fifa to show that the Kabwe Warriors striker Godfrey Chitalu, who won Zambia's player of the year award five times, scored 107 goals in 1972.

"We have this record, which has been recorded in Zambian football, but unfortunately it has not been recorded in world football," said a Zambia FA spokesperson. "Even as the world has been looking at Lionel Messi's record, breaking Gerd Müller's, the debate and discussion back here has been why Godfrey's goals are not being recognised.

"What we are doing is, we have commissioned an independent team locally to go back into the archives and record minute-by-minute each of those goals. The team that we have put together is going to calculate all of those goals, recording whichever game or tournament they were scored in.

"We will then send that to CAF [Confederation of African Football] and Fifa so that we can show that, while Messi's record is there, while Müller's record is there, the actual record holder in terms of goals per calendar year is actually an African. It's actually Godfrey Chitalu."

Chitalu, who scored the goals in at least four domestic competitions and also played for Zambia's national team, went on to become national coach. He died in 1993 when a plane carrying the team crashed near Gabon.