Soccer: Leo Messi Now The All-time La Liga Goal Scorer

The Barça forward surpassed Telmo Zarra's previous record of 251 goals
It's been almost a decade since Messi's first, and his best year saw him get 50 in La Liga

Leo Messi is now the new all-time La Liga scoring leader. He scored three times against Sevilla at Camp Nou on Saturday evening, giving him a total of 253 for his career, thus surpassing the previous record held by Telmo Zarra since 1955.

Telmo Zarraonaindía played for Athletic Bilbao from 1940 to 1955, scoring 251 goals in 277 games (0.91 per game). Almost 60 years later, Messi has gone past him. Just a few weeks after the 10th anniversary of Messi's Barça debut, the Argentinian scored his 253rd career goal in only 289 league matches (0.87 per game).

The 27 year-old Leo Messi has now reached the summit, one season after surpassing the career marks of Hugo Sánchez (234), Raúl (228), Alfredo Di Stéfano (227), César (224) and Quini (219). The eighth player to have over 200 career league goals is Pahiño (210).

The four-time Ballon d'Or winner first found the net on May 1st, 2005 against Albacete at Camp Nou. Since then, especially since the 2008/2009 season, Messi hasn't seen a record he hasn't broken. His best year was in 2011/2012 when he got 50 of his 253 league goals.

One of the few records he has yet to break is that of the maximum number of seasons leading La Liga in scoring. Zarra holds that record still, with six. Messi has done it three times, in 2009/10, 2011/12 and 2012/13.