Lionel Messi closing in on Celtic legend's goal record for Barcelona

Lionel Messi has Celtic legend Jimmy McGrory in his goalscoring sights, almost 100 years after the Hoops icon made his debut.

Goal machine: Barcelona forward Lionel Messi is closing in on Jimmy McGrory's haul. Picture: Getty Images

The Barcelona superstar netted his 400th La Liga goal for the Catalan giants in just 435 appearances in a 3-0 win against Eibar.

And the next record he’s aiming for is Celtic goal machine McGrory as he aims to top the list of players who have scored the most league goals in European history.

McGrory - who made his Celtic debut in 1923 - scored a quite incredible 522 goals for the Parkhead side in just 501 appearances, before his retirement in 1937.

His league record was 410 goals - the last coming in his final game against Queen’s Park before a knee injury forced him to retire.

Messi is just ten goals away from McGrory and currently lies fourth in the all-time list, which is headed by Josef Bican, who netted 500 goals in the Czech League, mostly for Slavia Prague, McGrory at 410 and Stjepan Bobek, who scored 403 goals for Partizan Belgrade in the Yugoslavian League.

Messi has now netted a career total of 575 goals in 659 games for club and country in all competitions.

McGrory managed 550 goals in just 547 appearances in all competitions for Celtic and a loan spell at Clydebank.