Data check: A look at Lionel Messi’s staggering numbers for Barcelona and Argentina

Sixteen years since making his debut, Lionel Messi continues to script records that leave the best of statisticians gasping for breath. YouTube connoisseurs compiling hundreds of hours of videos would say the same. Never before has a footballer dazzled with the ball at his feet and complimented it with numbers that only get better with time.

He is also a manager’s dream, pressing aggressively along with his teammates as Barcelona try to recycle the ball. Along with scoring goals that would not look out of place in a Playstation setting, he also sets up his teammates with the most sumptuous of passes. Jose Mourinho, who has never managed him, called him the ‘God of Football’ last year.

Watch: Lionel Messi’s greatest assists

Shining with Barcelona

In his early years at Barcelona, Messi played as a winger on either flank. Since then, the six-time Ballon d’Or winner has become more central in his positioning, being deployed as an attacking midfielder, second striker or even in a false nine position, underlining his versatility.

A star La Masia graduate when he was handed his debut by manager Frank Rijkaard, it didn’t take long for the diminutive left-footer to show his class. Till 2006, he remained very much on the fringes for club and country. It was a summer to forget for Messi as he missed the Champions League final against Arsenal in Paris and was, inexplicably, an unused substitute as Argentina crashed out to hosts Germany at the quarter-final stage in the World Cup.

Lionel Messi – the prodigy who dribbled past difficulties on his way to stardom

But since then, Messi has grown to be at the forefront of Barcelona’s rise as one of the most decorated football team on the planet, especially during the Pep Guardiola years (2008-’12). As things stand, Messi, who turns 33 on Wednesday, is already the top goal-scorer of all-time for the Catalan giants and also holds the same record for his country.

After the disappointments he suffered as a 19-year-old, whether it was being overlooked in an intense quarter-final battle during the World Cup or missing out on the Champions League final, Messi made amends. The 2006-’07 marked his arrival on the big stage, scoring a hat-trick in an El Clasico. Barca, though, lost out on the league title to bitter rivals Real Madrid that year. However, Messi entered double figures for the first time.

The 2008-’09 season was a watershed year for Messi and Barcelona. Under new manager Guardiola, the Blaugurana went on lift six trophies that season, and with that, gave Messi his first Ballon d’Or award.

The goals kept coming. Between 2010 and 2015, there was only one season where the Barca No 10 did not end up with more than 50 goals a season. Despite Barca not being able to lift the La Liga or the Champions League titles in 2012-’13, Messi wrote another piece of history after breaking Gerd Muller’s record for most goals in a season. The Argentine ended up with a whopping 73 for the season. It is notable that he has scored more than 40 goals in each of the seasons in the previous decade.

What has underpinned his greatness is the ability to combine with his teammates. Be it Ronaldinho in his teenage years or the likes of Thierry Henry, Samuel Eto’o, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, David Villa, Luis Suarez or Neymar, Messi is a fellow striker’s delight.

His free-kicks have also become more potent with age. He was not the designated spot-kick taker in his earlier years, especially when Xavi Hernandez was running the Barca midfield. Now, only a brave person would bet against Messi not curling one into the top corner.

The next hurdle for Messi surely has to be knockout games in the Champions League, a department where arch-rival Cristiano Ronaldo holds the edge.

Messi has been a part of four Champions League-winning campaigns, scoring twice in the final. Incidentally, Manchester United were the opponents on both occasions. The solo goal he scored against Real Madrid in the semi-finals in 2011 was the stuff of dreams. Darting towards the goal from nearly 50 yards out, Messi waltzed past the likes of Pepe and Sergio Ramos with ease before slotting it past goalkeeper Iker Casillas.

But it has been five years since he lifted the ‘big ears’. With the business end of the Champions League right around the corner, there is no better time for Messi to improve on that record.

The Argentina problem

Due to his success with Barcelona, Messi has sometimes been unfairly criticised for not replicating his almost-inhuman form in the blue and white. He has been a beaten Copa America finallist on three occasions. There is also the silver medal from the 2014 World Cup, a competition where he stamped his class and dragged Argentina to the final. He walked away with the Golden Ball award but that was poor compensation.

Unlike Barcelona, where a footballing philosophy is drilled into every academy graduate and new players bought by the club, Argentina, over the past decade have perennially in a state of flux. Teams from the recent years have stood pale in comparison from the great teams of the 1980s and the ‘90s even as Messi carries the burden alone.

In a do-or-die encounter in the 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador, Messi starred the show with a hat-trick to send Albiceleste into the main event. But the same old team problem struck and they were knocked out. As things stand, a major international trophy is one the few things that eludes Messi.