The official governing body of football have stated that Messi actually holds the record for most goals in a calendar year amid claims from Flamengo and Zambian FA.
Since Messi’s surpassing of the Gerd Muller record, in the http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38604 vs. Betis game, a lot of claims have surfaced which state that the Argentine forward is not the worthy holder of the prestigious record.
Lionel Messi’s brace against Real Betis took his 2012 goal tally to an astonishing 86 goals, 1 more than the then record holder Gerd Muller.
Muller had played for German giants Bayern Munich and the German international team and in the 1972 year he went on a hot goal scoring run, grabbing 85 goals for both club and country.
The 40 year old record was long held and no claims rose for this long time period, but Lionel Messi’s breaking of the hallowed record has not gone well with the Zambian Football Association and Brazilian football club, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Flamengo-c39361’s, football board.
Zambian FA first claimed that their player, Godfrey Chitalu was the actual holder of the record as he had scored 107 goals at both club level and international level in 1972.
It was reported that Chitalu had scored 49 league goals and 58 goals in internationals and friendlies.
"http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Kabwe-Warriors-c39654, for whom Godfrey Chitalu played, is a legendary team in our country," FAZ president Kalusha Bwalya was quoted as saying by BBC Sport.
"Their front line had Godfrey Chitalu scoring all the goals -- and even for the national team, this man did a lot. So I think it would be important for people to recognise his feats."
The Zambian FA were pretty serious in making the record count as they set up a committee to go through the archives and ensure that the record stayed put. They also forced FIFA into making an official investigation on the matter.
Brazilian outfit Flamengo then came into the picture and they had a claim of their own as well. According to them, Zico, a Brazilian legend, was reported to be the actual holder of the record and his stats were believed to be 89 goals in a single calendar
year.
FIFA however have not been encouraging to these claims and according to recent news, the official governing body of the game has denounced the claims. They said,
"Thanks for the questions about Godfrey Chitalu. Our official stats are limited to FIFA competitions, so we cannot verify this 'record'," FIFA's communications department said on its Twitter account @fifamedia. "We keep records for all FIFA competitions,"
it added.
The Zambian FA will not be pleased with this sort of response from the governing body as they believe that their player is the most worthy in order to keep the record to his name, and they will feel robbed at the shape that FIFA have given to the situation.
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