Budweiser celebrates Messi by shipping bad beer to every goalie he’s beaten

Lionel Messi has driven many a goalkeeper to drink over the course of his legendary career. Now, all the more so.

In a brilliantly cheeky bit of marketing, Budweiser celebrated Messi’s 644th goal for Barcelona, breaking Pele’s all-time scoring record for a club, by sending out 644 individually-numbered bottles of beer, all to the goalkeepers he’s beaten over the years.

That should make for a nice retirement party for Real Madrid legend Iker Casillas, who got 17 bottles of the King of Beers to commemorate all the times Messi put a ball in his net.

Bottle number 644 goes to Real Valladolid’s Jordi Masip, who surrendered Messi’s record-breaking goal on Tuesday at Estadio Municipal José Zorrilla.

Obviously, there are plenty more bottles to go around. During Messi’s career, it’s hardly mattered who has been between the sticks. If you give him the space to be at his creative best — and sometimes, if you mark him so tightly that he has to be at his creative best to figure out how to shoot, he’s going to score.

No word yet on whether Colt 45 plans to send a single 40-ounce bottle to Stefan Frei, the one goalkeeper that Rafael Marquez scored against during his three seasons as a member of the New York Red Bulls.