A day after the Zambian FA challenged Messi's record, it was Brazilian club Flamengo's turn to claim that the record should belong to Zico.

A good year
Brazilian club Flamengo may challenge Lionel Messi's calendar year record, saying that former Brazil captain Zico scored 89 goals in 1979. "We are upset. Messi still hasn't passed the milestone," Bruno Lucena, head of Flamengo's research and statistics department, said.

Lucena calculated that Zico scored 81 goals for Flamengo in 1979, plus another seven for Brazil and one in a friendly between Argentina and a Rest of the World XI.

He added that Zico missed two months of the season through injury between September and November. "If he had played for the whole year, he would have scored more than 100 goals," he said.

According to the statistics, he hit six goals in a game on two occasions, four goals in a game once and five hat-tricks.

Know Zico
Given the sobriquet White Pele, Zico alongwith running mate Socrates was part of the most creative midfield in World Cup history in 1982, and to an extent, 1986.

On both occasions Brazil played the beautiful game but were undone in the knockouts.