Zambia's Football Association says the striker Godfrey Chitalu has scored the most goals in a calendar year, not Argentina's Lionel Messi, Brazil's Zico nor the supposed original record-holder Gerd Müller of West Germany.
The Zambian FA will join Brazil in contesting Messi's recent claim to the title, saying Chitalu scored 107 goals in 1972, the same year Müller set his supposed record with Bayern Munich.
Barcelona star Messi was credited with the new record after going better than Mueller's best of 85 goals in 1972 with a first-half brace that sealed his side's 2-1 win over Real Betis on Monday.
But Zambian researchers disagree, with the researcher Jerry Muchimba telling the BBC that Chitalu scored 49 goals in the local league and 58 in cup and international matches in 1972
Muchimba compiled the proof from daily newspapers Times of Zambia and the Zambia Daily Mail, as well as the national archives, and the southern African nation's football federation intend to try and get Chitalu's tally ratified by football's governing body FIFA.
Chitalu died with the whole national football team when their airplane crashed off the coast of Gabon in 1993 on the way to a World Cup qualifier in Senegal. He was head coach at the time.
Messi's record has already been contested by Brazilian club Flamengo who claim their former player Zico scored 89 goals in the 1979 season.
