On This Day: Messi broke Gerd Muller's record for most goals in a calendar year

Hi all, welcome to All Football's On This Day! Let's find out what happened today (December 9th) in football history. If you have more stories and news that happened on this day in history, please post them in the comment area and share them with AFers!

On This Day in 2012 - Still An Impressive Record By Any Measure

On 9 December 2012, Lionel Messi scored twice to beat Gerd Müller's record for goals in a calendar year with his 85th and 86th. 

Going into Barcelona's away match against Real Betis, Messi was sitting on a total of 84 goals scored in 2012 for his club and Argentina, putting him one behind the mark of 85 set by Gerd Müller in 1972 for Bayern Munich and Germany. But he scored twice in the first half (16', 25') to surpass Müller's record and Barcelona went on to win 1-2.

Messi went on to score another five goals before the end of the year, taking his number to 91.

And what's more, on 10 December 2017, Messi equals Gerd Müller's record (525) for most goals for a single club, from Europe's top5 leagues.

On This Day in 1988 - Asamoah Was Born

Asamoah was born 9 December 1988 in Accra, and he is a Ghanaian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder or defender for Italian club Inter Milan.

He began his professional career with Italian club Udinese in 2008; his consistent performances earned him a transfer to Juventus in 2012, where, with his energy, versatility, and technical skills, he played a key role in helping the club to 6 consecutive Serie A titles between 2013 and 2018, among other titles. At the international level, he has represented Ghana in four Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, and two FIFA World Cups.

Asamoah was awarded CAF Most Promising African Player in 2010 and named Ghana Player of the Year twice consecutively for 2012 and 2013. 

In 2013, Asamoah was ranked as the 27th best footballer in the world by Bloomberg.

On This day in 1969 - Happy Birthday of Bixente Lizarazu

Bixente Lizarazu (Basque pronunciation: [biˈʃente lis̻aˈɾas̻u]), initially registered as Vincent Lizarazu,[3] (born 9 December 1969) is a retired Basque-French footballer who played for Bordeaux and Bayern Munich, among other teams, as a left back. He also had 97 caps for the French national team.

In a twelve-year international career from 1992 to 2004, Lizarazu played in three European championships and two World Cups for France, winning the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000.

On This Day in 1984 - Percudani Pounces On Liverpool

On 9 December 1984, Independiente won their second Intercontinental Cup, beating Liverpool 1-0.

The Argentinians were making their sixth appearance in the competition after a 10-year absence and a previous record of four losses (1964, 1965, 1972, 1974) and one win--a 1-0 victory over Juventus in 1973. Liverpool, meanwhile, were in it for only the second time after losing 3-0 to Flamengo in 1981.

Playing before a crowd of 62,000 at Tokyo's National Stadium, Liverpool's attack featured the high-scoring forward pairing of Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush (Rush was Europe's top scorer that season with 32 goals in 41 league appearances). But it was 19-year old Independiente striker José Percudani (pictured) who got the day's only goal. He sprinted past the Liverpool defense to latch on to a pass that had been sent from beyond the midfield stripe, then beat goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar with a tidy left-footed finish.

It turned out to be the last time in the competition for either club, though Liverpool made an appearance in the 2005 edition of its successor, the FIFA Club World Cup, losing 1-0 to São Paulo.