Lionel Messi's cheeky Christmas present he gave to 160 opponents and Premier League stars

Lionel Messi marked one of his numerous milestones with a humorous Christmas gift to many of his past adversaries. The 37-year-old has been giving the gift of glorious football over the last two decades, providing countless unforgettable moments.

Most of these were for Barcelona before his emotional departure in 2021. Just months before his move to PSG, Messi celebrated another milestone when he scored his 644th goal for the Catalan club.

This was significant as it broke Pele’s record for Santos of the player with the most goals for a single club. To commemorate this achievement, Messi and one of his sponsors, Budweiser, came up with a playful plan.

They decided to send a bottle of beer to each goalkeeper he had scored against for every single goal. This amounted to 160 goalkeepers, including 13 then-Premier League stars.

Manchester United’s David de Gea, Tottenham keepers Hugo Lloris and Joe Hart and Liverpool’s Alisson all received a couple each. The star with the largest Christmas booze-up was Diego Alves.

The former Almeria and Valencia goalie received the most of anyone with 21. He was followed by Gorka Iraizoz on 18, Iker Casillas and Andres Fernandez on 17 and Diego Lopez on 14.

The beers arrived just in time for Christmas, with Gianluigi Buffon and Jan Oblak expressing their gratitude to Messi on social media on Christmas Eve. Buffon wrote: “Thanks for the beers. I’ll take it as a compliment. We have great battles over the years! Congratulations on breaking the 644 record #Messi! it really is an unbelievable achievement. Cheers!”

Oblak, meanwhile, posted: “Congratulations on your great achievement of 644 goals, Leo. I never like conceding but the challenge of stopping you brings the best out of goalkeepers too. Thank you for the special gift.”

Messi continues to shatter records, with his career goals now astonishingly reached 850 for club and country. His list of goalkeeper victims has only grown since his move to France and later embarking on a new chapter in the United States with Inter Miami.