Lionel Messi equals Pelé’s 643 club goals, Barça held by Valencia
Barcelona, Dec 20: Lionel Messi has another individual scoring milestone, but he sure doesn't have a team that looks like a champion.
Messi equalled Pel 's all-time club scoring tally on Saturday in a 2-2 draw with Valencia. His 643rd career goal for Barcelona since his 2004 debut matched Pel 's tally for Santos from 1957-74.
Messi is Barcelona's and the Spanish league's all-time leading scorer.
In January 2018, he became the most prolific scorer among Europe's top leagues when he reached 366 league goals, surpassing Gerd Mueller's Bundesliga mark of 365. Messi had already surpassed Gerd Mueller's single-year goal mark by scoring 86 times in 2012.
Pel congratulated the Argentina forward on social media: "Like you, I know what it's like to love wearing the same shirt every day. Like you, I know that there is nothing better than the place we feel at home.
"Congratulations on your historic record, Lionel," Pel added.
"But above all, congratulations on your beautiful career at Barcelona. Stories like ours, of loving the same club for so long, unfortunately will be increasingly rare in football."
Pel 's comments went right to the heart of Messi's uncertain situation at Barcelona.
Messi has yet to recant on his announcement last summer that he wanted to leave the club which is no longer the dominant force that he had done so much to forge over the past two decades.
His contract expires in June, and he will be free to negotiate with other clubs come January.
The latest setback by Barcelona left Ronald Koeman's team in fifth place and eight points adrift of league leader Atl tico Madrid, which got two goals by Luis Su rez to beat Elche 3-1.
Messi cancelled out Mouctar Diakhaby's opener for Valencia when he scored in first half injury time moments after Jaume Dom nech saved his penalty shot.
Jordi Alba recovered the rebound of Dom nech's save and crossed it to the far post where Messi headed it in.
Central defender Ronald Ara jo scored his first career goal for Barcelona with an acrobatic kick for 2-1 at Camp Nou in the 53rd.
But Jos Gay set up Maxi G mez to hit back for Valencia in the 69th and split the points.
GROWING PAINS
Koeman attributed the slip to the youth of his team, which he is trying to build around a veteran core. Koeman gave consecutive starts to Ara jo and scar Mingueza, both 21, and entrusted playmaking duties to 18-year-old Pedro Pedri Gonz lez. Sergi o Dest, at 20, has become his undisputed starter at right back with Sergio Roberto injured.
"The age of some players can explain why there is a certain inconsistency because consistency comes from playing together for a long time," Koeman said.
"We lacked control and lost too many balls in defense sometimes. I saw my team have doubts."
A botched marking scheme made it easier for Diakhaby to head in Valencia's opener in the 29th when Antoine Griezmann -- who is significantly shorter than the center back -- lost his mark of him during a corner kick.
"We don't have many tall players to defend their tallest ones but we cannot leave anyone wide open," Koeman said.
"We have to at least be there, be engaged."
SU REZ SCORES
Su rez's goals were his first since he recovered from the coronavirus. He isn't the voracious scorer he used to be at Barcelona before changing clubs this summer, but he is still a world-class finisher when his teammates get him the ball in scoring position.
Substitute Diego Costa, who replaced Jo o F lix after he took a hard knock, put the result beyond doubt for Atletico when he earned and converted a penalty with 10 minutes remaining in his first appearance after missing seven games due to injury.
The league leaders moved three points clear of Real Madrid and Real Sociedad, which lost at Levante 2-1.
SOCIEDAD UPSET
Levante overcame an opening goal by Sociedad to get a win that pulled it out of the relegation zone. Levante outplayed Sociedad in the second half and Jorge de Frutos blasted in the winner with three minutes remaining.
OTHER RESULTS
Spain striker Gerard Moreno scored his league-leading seventh and eighth goals to lead fourth-place Villarreal's 3-1 victory at 10-man Osasuna, leaving it one point behind Madrid.
Sevilla missed the chance to move ahead of Barcelona after conceding a late goal in a 1-1 draw with Valladolid.
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Assam Cong. leader Reetam Singh arrested for third time in a month
Guwahati: Assam Congress spokesperson Reetam Singh has been arrested for the third time in one month by the state police. Singh, known for his strong criticism of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on social media, reported The Wire.
It’s worth noting that Sarma is also the state’s Home Minister and has direct control over the police.
Singh who is also an Advocate was first arrested on March 15 by the Lakhimpur police after the wife of BJP MLA Manab Deka who is a close aide to CM Sarma filed a complaint. She claimed Singh had defamed her husband and her father in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Her father belongs to a Scheduled Caste, so the police charged Singh under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, along with defamation and IT Act charges.
The Gauhati High Court later granted Singh bail on March 28. According to the report, Congress MP and general secretary media in-charge Jairam Ramesh had stated that the Gauhati high court had found Singh’s arrest “riddled with procedural errors, evidencing the haste and illegality of the regime’s efforts to throttle his voice. Reetam was targeted by the State of Assam for his social media posts but now stands released from custody.”
Ramesh also in his statement asserted that no matter what the BJP government throws at the Congress workers and leaders, the party will continue to fight for the common public.
However, on April 12, Singh was arrested again this time by the Morigaon police based on another complaint under the same SC/ST law. The complaint came from a local BJP leader named Dhonti Sharma. Qouting a Press Trust of India report, The Wire reported that the police didn’t share details at first, saying the matter was still being investigated.
When Singh was brought to court on April 13, he told reporters that he was being targeted just for speaking about Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. After the court in Morigaon granted him bail, a different police team from Jagiroad arrested him once again.
A video of Singh’s third arrest has gone viral. It shows his father trying to talk to him through the police van, asking why he had been arrested again. When police refused, his father lay down in front of the van to stop it from leaving. Officers then removed him and asked him to visit the Jagiroad police station, about 27 km away, to get details.
Assam Congress President Bhupen Kumar Borah condemned the arrest and accused the chief minister of trying to suppress free speech. He said Singh was being treated like a dangerous criminal even though all he did was criticize BJP leaders on social media. Borah also said, denying Singh’s parents a chance to see him was a violation of human rights.
This is not the first time Assam police has been in the news recently. They also arrested journalist Dilwar Hussain Mozumder while he was covering a protest at a co-operative bank linked to corruption. Chief Minister Sarma is a director of the same bank. Mozumder too was charged under the SC/ST Act and later granted bail. A few days after his release, his brother was arrested in a separate land-grabbing case.
