The King of Beers has found a unique way to salute the King of Goals, reports Yahoo Sports.
Brewing giant Budweiser is celebrating Barcelona’s Lionel Messi — who recently became the all-time top scorer for a single club, breaking the record Pelé set with Santos in his native Brazil — by sending a bottle of suds for every strike, all 644 of them, to the goalkeepers Messi scored each of those goals against.
The individual bottles are numbered, each one representing a specific goal he scored over his 16-plus years with Barca.
Many of those keepers will be receiving more than one bottle, and a few of them a lot more; the 33-year old Argentinean 644 goals came against just 160 different men.
Diego Alves conceded 21 goals to Messi over his decade with Almería and Valencia in in La Liga, Spain’s top league.
Former Real Madrid backstop Iker Casillas was next on the six-time Ballon d'Or winner’s “victim” list.
Lionel Messi became the all-time top scorer for a single football club Tuesday after scoring his 644th goal for...
Posted by Sports Tribune on Thursday, 24 December 2020
Casillas, who left La Liga for Portugal in 2015, was beaten by Messi 17 times across all club competition during his time with Real, Barca’s most hated rival.
Other keepers, including Atletico Madrid’s Jan Oblak and Juventus legend Gianluigi Buffon, posed for pictures with the bottles they received — numbers 488 and 514, respectively.
Messi’s milestone goal came against Valladolid’s Jordi Masip.
Budweiser released a short video when announcing the initiative Wednesday.
Messi says in the clip that no goal is easy.
Stopping him is even harder, though, as those 644 bottles prove.
