Barcelona, December 15: Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman heaped praise on Lionel Messi and said that "we will never see a player like" him again. In Barcelona's previous match, Messi guided the club to a 1-0 win over Levante with his goal in the 76th minute. With this goal, the Argentine star had touched the 600-goal mark whilst wearing the Barca No. 10 shirt. 600 goals since the 2008/09 season, when Messi inherited the number that Ronaldinho had worn for five years. Also Read | BCCI’s 89th Annual General Meeting in Ahmedabad on December 24; Members to Undergo RT-PCR Test on December 22.

Messi had previously worn the No.30 and No.19 shirts, from his official debut in 2004 until the beginning of the 2008/09 season. In total, Messi has 642 goals as a Barca player, of which 449 have come in LaLiga, 118 in the Champions League, 53 in the Copa del Rey, 14 in the Spanish Super Cup, three in the European Super Cup and five in the Club World Cup.

Moreover, this means that Messi is just one goal shy from matching Pele's record of 643 goals for Santos, which currently stands as the highest number of goals one player has ever scored for a single club.

"They are impressive figures, we will never see a player like that again, who has given so much happiness, that is why he is number one and is so important," Goal.com quoted Koeman as saying. Also Read | Wolves vs Chelsea, Premier League 2020-21 Free Live Streaming Online & Match Time in India: How to Watch EPL Match Live Telecast on TV & Football Score Updates in IST?.

"We saw him [shine] the other day, we depend on him. I do not know how many hat-tricks he has scored... once again, it's amazing what he's done for this club," he added. Barcelona are currently preparing for the La Liga clash against Real Sociedad, slated to take place on Thursday.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)