New Challenges Remain for Record-Breaking Messi

Not content with the landmarks and trophies already scooped up in a 10-year Barcelona career, Lionel Messi this week reached two milestones, breaking the records for the most number of goals in the UEFA Champions League and La Liga.

The Argentina captain shows no sign of letting up just yet.

Eulogies for Messi’s career were written almost in parallel with Cristiano Ronaldo’s charge to supremacy in 2013 and 2014. The Real Madrid forward may well claim a second straight Ballon d’Or but anyone who saw Messi’s hat-trick against Sevilla this weekend can be in no doubt – Messi is far from finished.

A stunning free-kick delivered Messi’s first goal of the game and his 251st in Spain’s top flight, taking him level with Telmo Zarra, a legendary striker of the 1950s. His second, a sliding tap-in from Neymar’s return pass set the new record and a powerful third set about building on it. The hat-trick made Messi the highest-scoring player of the weekend in EuroFantasyLeague.

They were also the first La Liga goals Messi had scored in a month, a dry spell of Sahara-like proportions for the 27-year-old. Messi’s goalless run came at a time when Barca were trying to fit in Luis Suarez to the side, and doing so with little success. It appeared to click for the Uruguayan before the international break, when he inspired a come-from-behind win over Almeria after entering the match as a half-time substitute, but it was Messi who took centre stage this time.

He did so as Barca returned to something approaching the style that has brought success for years on end. It wasn’t the Barca of Pep Guardiola and under Luis Enrique, it’s not going to be, but the tempo was far greater. Sevilla were closed down quicker and the ball was cycled faster. Perhaps most importantly, Messi had runners in attack to help him, Neymar and Suarez working off-the-ball in a manner best seen in Messi’s second, record-breaking goal.

As Messi burst through the middle of the pitch he was flanked by Neymar and Suarez. In previous games there had been too much standing around, with the intention of making themselves available for the pass, and Messi was as guilty as anyone. But here, Suarez went one way and Neymar went the other. The pass found the Brazilian and Messi and Suarez kept running for the return. It was Messi who put the ball in the net but Suarez was there too, waiting for his first Barca goal.

That Messi flung himself at the pass to ensure he got the decisive touch and not Suarez points to his single-mindedness. That’s not a bad thing when it helps produce a hat-trick. You don’t set a La Liga goals record without your desire to score burning brighter than anyone else’s. Perhaps now the question of when he will surpass Zarra has been answered the freedom with which Messi is so closely associated can return.

Messi’s place in the history books was assured before Saturday but there is another legacy waiting, one entirely different from individual goal tallies. If Messi is the catalyst that brings together the Barca frontline of himself, Neymar and Suarez, it may be an achievement worth its weight in goals.

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