#l30messi

All-time scorer for goals scored in a calendar year (91 goals in 2012 for club and country)

Most Ballon d’Or award, all time (5)

All-time leading scorer for the Argentina National Team (58 goals)

Most titles won with a Spanish club, all-time (30, tied with Andrés Iniesta)

All-time leading scorer for FC Barcelona (507 goals)

All-time assist leader in the Spanish First Division (137 assists)

First player to ever score at least one goal against each team in the Spanish First Division in a single season (2012-13)

All-time leading scorer in El Clasico history (23 goals)

All-time record for goals scored in a calendar year in the Spanish First Division (59 goals in 2012)

Only player in history to have scored in six different competitions in the same year more than once (2011 and 2015)

Most Golden Shoe awards, all-time (4, tied with CR7)

Most top-three finishes in the history of the Ballon d’Or award (10, from 2007 to 2016)

Most goals scored in a single season in club football history (73 goals in 2011-12)

Highest ever goal total for a Golden Shoe winner (50 goals in the 2011-12 season)

Only player in Spanish football history to score 40 or more goals in eight consecutive seasons

All-time leading scorer in Barcelona derby history vs Espanyol (17 goals)

All-time leader in game-opening goals for a player’s own team in the history of the Spanish First Division (78 goals)

Most titles won with FC Barcelona, all-time (30, tied with Andrés Iniesta)

All-time leading scorer in the Spanish First Division (349 goals)

All-time leading scorer in El Clasico history in games played at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid (16 goals)

Most trebles won, all-time (2, tied with Piqué, Iniesta, Xavi, Dani Alves, Busquets, Pedro and Eto’o)

Longest ever consecutive game goal streak in La Liga (34 goals scored over 21 straight games in the 2012-13 season)

All-time leading scorer in Spanish Super Cup history (12 goals)

All-time leading scorer in games played at Camp Nou (290 goals)

Most Champions League titles won, all-time (tied with Seedorf, Eto’o, Iniesta, Xavi, CR7 and Piqué)

Only player in the Spanish First Divison history to have scored in 13 consecutive games away from home in the same season (2012-13)

Only player in the history of the Spanish First Division to have scored at least 20 goals in 9 consecutive seasons (2008-17)

Youngest player in history to win three Ballon d’Or awards (24 years, six months, and 17 days old)

Most two-goal games in the history of Spanish First Division (101)

Most direct free-kick goals in FC Barcelona history (27)

ALL HAIL THE KING!!!

I could write about how Messi is the very reason I watch football, that he’s the main reason I started supporting Barça and all that. But to be honest, I was adamant in being a girly girl as a kid, and then when I finally gave in, I was fourteen and let’s just say I don’t remember much of my teens (didn’t like them much). So there’s that.

I could write about how he’s different from anyone else based on transcendence of position. I mean, he can’t really leave as many defenders begging for mercy as when he was 23- even if the memory of that is what makes us look at the “heirs” and say “not as good” when they run past two- because Messi could run past nine. I could write about how he’s the sole spot of light many times, because his good friends catch stage fright every time since 2014. I could write about how he has no problem going deep to retrieve that ball. I could write about how he’s willing to share his spotlight, because he, more than anyone, understands football, embodies football. I could write about how he has no problem being the only one. Unlike in Barça, when regardless of that photo it was Neymar the one who kept fighting when all seemed lost and PSG were seeing themselves in the next round, when he plays for Argentina he takes the team on his shoulders and does it all, even when he’s alone surrounded by seven or more Chileans, even when ultras who can’t see beyond their jerseys are desperate to compare him with someone who hasn’t even been likened to Cruyff, even when journalist attempts who’ll sell themselves for a ticket, a jersey and an interview drag him down just for ratings.

I could write about how sometimes, we’re so used to seeing him as a god, we forget he’s human. How he intended to walk away from it all, but he still came back. Because we needed him. We need him.

I could write about how he’s been written off so many times and then he does something seemingly impossible, now and then, and we’re back to admiring.

But I can’t. No matter how nice my words, I could never give Lionel Messi justice. So I’ll just recommend you watch him on YouTube, or any match on TV. Both club and country. Especially the country ones, watch without snark, wishing he played for Spain. Try to catch him.