Although this year was not good in terms of numbers by his own standards, he was undoubtedly one of the best players of 2020. Let's see what he did this year:
Looking only at his numbers this year, he scored 27 goals and 19 assists, reaching 46 goals generated, in addition to creating 36 great chances, making 246 dribbles, 131 key passes, 15 filtered passes, having 25 Pd of 48 and an average valuation of 8.44. He also achieved the 1000 goal-generated mark this year.
If we go to the 2019/20 season, he was the top scorer and assistant in La Liga, breaking Xavi's record for the most assists with 20 and achieving his record seventh Pichichi. These are the statistics in which Messi led in that season:
And in the Champions League, despite only reaching the quarterfinals, he managed to lead in some statistics, which are the following:
So far in the 2020/21 season, he has scored 7 goals and provided 1 assist in La Liga, and reached 11 goals and 3 assists in total adding up the Champions League. He currently leads in the following stats:
And in the Champions League it is a leader in the following statistics:
At the end of it, it was not a bad year for him at all, leading in numerous statistics and having very good numbers. Happy New Year, and may Messi have an even better performance next year.
Yesterday Barcelona drew 1 to 1 with Eibar at Campo Nou, a game that seemed easy at first glance, but as Messi did not play, it was difficult for Barcelona and they lost valuable points.
Once again, the clinical attribute is very much needed, since Barcelona missed two clear chances, one of them a missed penalty that Messi would have kicked if he played, and had a clearly higher xG than Eibar.
Crédito: AS
This brings us back to a topic that I spoke about yesterday, the points won by Messi, and that Messidependencia has been quite clear since last season. If this happens again, Barcelona could say goodbye to the league title.
Messi is clearly the benchmark of Barcelona, and the goals and assists he generates are vital for Barcelona to have won their trophies, so today we will see the points that Messi has won in La Liga thanks to his G/A.
If we only go to goals, Messi has given Barcelona 210 points. Without their points, Barcelona would be in the following positions:
As you can see, Barcelona would have 8 fewer league titles if it weren't for Messi's goals, which is a huge difference.
If we go to goals and assists, it becomes much more drastic, winning 313 points now in La Liga for Barcelona. Let's see his statistics per season:
An overwhelming difference between Barcelona's points with and without Messi's G/A.
Let's be even more drastic and count Messi's non-Opta assists in his G/A, which would mean 343 points won by Messi, to see how Barcelona would fare:
Again, drastic difference, and shows how important Messi is for Barcelona. Hopefully that information was useful to you, and I will see you in the next entry.
A great player like Messi obviously has good streaks, and in this entry, I'll show you Messi's best in some areas.
When talking about his scoring streaks, Messi's record is 10 matches in a row, which he achieved twice between October and November 2010 and December 2012 and January 2013. In La Liga, he had a streak of 21 consecutive games scoring between November 2012 and May 2013, which is a La Liga record.
Credit: REUTERS
In a streak of assists, he reached 8 games in a row between July and September 2011, and 5 games in a row in La Liga between December 2017 and January 2018.
If we talk about goals and assists, his best streak was 4 games, which he obtained in August 2011 and between December 2017 and January 2018. And if we talk about goals or assists, he had a streak of 15 consecutive games between January and March from 2011.
As we can see, Messi has quite good streaks in terms of goals and assists, another proof of his greatness, and let's remember that these statistics only say half of him.
In today's entry, I'll talk about Messi's campaign at the 2010 World Cup, and I'll show that even though he didn't score, he was exceptional in that tournament.
Let's look at his game-by-game performances first. In his debut against Nigeria, he created a great chance for Higuaín, but he couldn't convert it. He later made a good shot which Enyeama sent to a corner, from where Argentina got its only goal. 37 minutes in, Enyeama pushed Messi's shot out by his fingertips, almost getting in. In the second half, Haruna got booked for a tackle on Messi, and Messi had a good chance later but Enyeama once again saved it. Overall, a good game where Enyeama kept saving his chances and he made a total of 6 goalscoring chances. He also made a lot of dangerous runs which put Nigeria's defense in trouble, and he also received 4 fouls.
Against South Korea, he received a yellow-card tackle from Yeom Ki-Hun, and then Argentina's 1st goal came from a free-kick from Messi that Chu-Young sent to his own net. For the second goal, Maxi made a connection with Messi and crossed it to Higuaín, and after it was flicked he ended up scoring Argentina's 2-0. Near the end of the first half, he dropped deep and then got the ball near the box, but unfortunately, his chip (which was marked by 6 different players) went just wide. In the second half, he made a good cross from his free-kick but neither Higuaín or Tévez could convert it. In Argentina's 3rd goal of the game, he hit the post and Higuaín scored the rebound, and finally, Argentina's 4th goal was pre-assisted by Messi to Agüero to Higuaín. Overall, Messi was a constant menace in the game, making 6 shots, 3 key passes, and receiving 2 fouls. He was Goal's MoTM alongside Higuaín with an 8.5 rating.
His last game of the group stage was against Greece. For the first time with the national team, he had the captain armband. There wasn't much action from Messi in the first half until the end where he made a good shot that was ultimately saved by Tzorvas. In the second half, he played a good ball that was sent to a corner, and from there Argentina got their 1st goal. He, unfortunately, hit the post later on, but near the end of the game he hit a powerful shot which was saved but Palermo scored on the rebound, giving Argentina the 2-0 win. He made 5 shots, 3 key passes, received 4 fouls and he got his 1st and only MoTM in the tournament on this game.
He then faced Mexico in the Round of 16. He assisted Argentina's 1st goal with a good lob pass to Tévez. In Argentina's 2nd goal, he blocked the path for a pass from Osorio to Torrado, and with the growing pressure on Osorio, Higuaín stole the ball and scored. Near the end of the game, he made a good play by getting rid of 2 Mexican players but his shot got saved by Pérez. In the end, Argentina won 3-1. And overall, he made 3 shots, 2 key passes, and he was the main target of Mexico's defense, receiving 5 fouls in total.
His last game was against Germany in the quarter-finals. He made a good ball to Tévez, but Neuer grabbed it first. Then in the second half, his shot got deflected to Higuaín who was close to the goal, but Lahm got to the ball first. The game ended in a devastating 4-0 for Germany. He played unusually deep in this game, having to drop deep often, which probably affected his performance. He made 7 shots and made 2 key passes, but it wasn't enough. He got a 7 rating from Goal, the best rating from his team.
As you can see, it was a good campaign. This left him sixth in the World Cup Golden Ball, which is a great honor. And he could have even finished 4th if his standards weren't so high, since some could say he made a better performance than Gyan.
His stats were: 1 assist, 321 passes, 31 shots, 15 on target, 31 dribbles (most in the tournament), and 16 key passes. If we use @BarcaStat's score metric, Messi had at least 29,025 points, which leaves him as the second-best player behind Sneijder, and if we are more reasonable with the tackles he made, he had at least 30,025 points, which puts him in first place in the tournament (ahead of Xavi too). That is a huge achievement, but there are still people who think he did a bad performance. We also have to note that he couldn't perform as usual due to the unique Jabulani ball, since it didn't allow him to produce the usual skills he did with normal balls, with Maradona making a complaint about it. There was also the vuvuzelas, which didn't allow him to communicate with his teammates and almost made him deaf due to them being very loud and present throughout entire games.
Thanks for reading, and hopefully you've learned more about Messi's underrated campaign at the 2010 World Cup.
There are people who say that Messi could never succeed in the Premier League, but in this entry, I will show one of the reasons why that is not true, and that is his performances against English teams (remember that they are only the "Big 6", not teams like Burnley or Sheffield United). Without further ado, let's look at the stats.
In terms of goals and assists, he has scored 26 goals and assisted 6, giving a total of 32 goals generated in just 34 games. He also has 1 poker, 1 hat-trick, and 6 braces. The average Elo of those English clubs (when Messi scored against them) is 1904.33~, which would be top 7 in the world today, so it can't be said that he did it when they weren't that good or something like that. It should be said that he has scored against them in Champions League finals, as he did twice against Manchester United.
Credit: Jasper Juinen/Getty Images
Looking at other statistics, he has an average rating of 8.72 against English teams since the 2009/10 season, he has done 5.5 dribbles per game (he even did 16 against Manchester United in the 2007/08 season, a record in the Champions League), he has been the Man of The Match in 13/23 games played and has given 2 key passes per game. As you can see, Messi has no problem when it comes to English teams, so he would have no problem if he went to the Premier League.
To celebrate that today is Christmas, I'll put some of Messi's Christmas photos on this entry, Merry Christmas everyone!
Credit: Clarín
Credit: Filo.news
Credit: Marca
Credit: Mundo Deportivo
Credit: Super Deportivo
As we can see, Messi clearly has a Christmas spirit alongside his family, and he's probably celebrating with them right now. I hope everyone has a great Christmas and a prosperous new year!
Since Messi plans to give a beer to all the goalkeepers he scored (1 beer = 1 goal), I will tell you in this post some statistics of Messi with the goalkeepers.
In his career at FC Barcelona, he has faced 198 goalkeepers, 160 of whom he has scored at some time. His worst streak is with Sergey Ryzhikov, whom he could not score in 4 games, while he has been able to do it against Diego Alves 21 times in the 17 times they played.
Gorka Iraizoz was the goalkeeper who received the most free-kick goals, with 5, followed by Beto, Pau López, and Diego López with 3 each. Abbiati and Alves were the two goalkeepers who received the most penalty goals, with 4 each, and it was Rubén and Alves who saved Messi the most penalties, with 2 each. Going to the averages, he has the highest against Ryan, de Vries, Vermeer, and Pavlík, with 3 per game for each.
Credit: Goal
You can see that he has as much fun as he wants with goalkeepers, and 644 bottles is definitely a lot, just like scoring 644 goals for a single club.
Yesterday Barça won 3-0 over Valladolid playing away, and they are getting closer to the top of the table, just 2 points behind third place, and then they work from there. Messi had a spectacular game, with 1 goal, 1 assist, 1 pre-assist, 7 shots on target (11 in total), 2 shots on the post, 5 dribbles, 1 big chance created, 6 ground duels won, 1 tackle, 1 long ball, 2 crosses, 4 key passes, 75 passes and 113 touches, which left him with a perfect 10/10. Again he showed that he is the best player in La Liga.
With this goal, he reached 10 this season, just 1 from being the top scorer in La Liga, and 27 this year. It is also important to note that he got his first assist this league season thanks to a goal from Lenglet, although he needed to create 10 big chances, 32 in total, for that to happen, and his xA is still considerably higher than his actual count.
Credit: Reuters
It could easily have been a bigger difference, with at least 3 more that could have entered, either by the post or by poor definition, but in the end the victory was comfortable, and the fight for the title remains undecided.
There are people who greatly underestimate Messi's ability to kick penalties, but the truth is that he is quite good and crucial at this, and in this entry I will show it.
Messi has scored many important penalties, which I will list here:
Argentina 2-1 Nigeria, 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship
Both penalties were converted by him, winning the final. Incredibly crucial.
Barcelona 2-1 Sevilla, La Liga 2007/08
He scored the winning goal with this penalty (Kanouté scored at the last minute). Without this victory, Barcelona would have been 2 points behind and only 2 points from going to the Europa League, and if they had gone there, almost everything that Guardiola did later would probably not have happened.
Barcelona 3-1 Arsenal, Champions League 2010/11
The penalty allowed Barcelona to go directly to the Quarterfinals, and then win the tournament. Without that penalty, they would have gone to overtime, and nobody knows what would have happened afterwards.
Real Madrid 1-1 Barcelona, La Liga 2010/11
He scored Barcelona's only goal in the 1-1 tie. Without that goal, there would have been only one point difference between Barça and Real Madrid, and perhaps it would have affected subsequent games.
AC Milan 2-3 Barcelona and Barcelona 3-1 AC Milan, Champions League 2011/12
He scored a total of 3 penalties, which although they had qualified Barcelona anyway by away goal, would have perhaps changed the game enough so that Milan were not demoralized.
Barcelona 3-2 Real Madrid, Supercopa de España 2012
He made the partial 2-1 win in what would be a 3-2 victory in the first leg of the Super Cup, but unfortunately, they lost it in the second leg by away goals.
Real Madrid 3-4 Barcelona, La Liga 2013/14
He scored 2 of the 4 goals of the match with his penalties (and another one previously). A good victory in search of the title but they ended up losing by a disallowed goal to Messi on the final date.
Barcelona 6-1 PSG, Champions League 2016/17
He made one of the 6 goals in the Comeback of the Century that allowed them to pass the round.
Argentina 1-0 Chile, Qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup
He scored the only goal of the penalty game, vital to qualify for the World Cup later as Argentina would have been 5th, behind Chile and Colombia.
Argentina 1-1 Paraguay, Copa América 2019
He scored the final tying goal. They would have been third in the group without his goal.
Argentina 1-0 Ecuador, Qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup
Winning goal thanks to his penalty. They are currently in second place, but would be third (2 points away from 5th place) without his goal.
Credit: Marca
Messi has undoubtedly been quite decisive when it comes to penalties and is given a bad reputation only for a missed penalty in the 2016 Copa América final (despite the fact that Biglia also missed). Messi is highly underrated and should be much more respected in this regard.
One of Messi's best skills is his dribbling, which he's exceptional on since he was a child, so in this entry I will show some of his statistics that show why he is the best dribbler in history.
First of all, let's look at his numbers: He has done 2,522 dribbles since the 2009/10 season, with an efficiency of around 61%, in addition to having done almost 1,000 more dribbles than second place in La Liga in the last decade. He's also the top dribbler in the Champions League since his debut in the 2004/05 season, beating his closest competitor, Ronaldo, by more than 200 dribbles. In total, since the 2009/10 season, he has been the competition's top dribbler in 7 of the last 12 tournaments (counting the current one). He also holds the record for the most dribbles in a single game in La Liga, with 15 against Real Betis in 2007, and that of the Champions League also, albeit tied, with 16 dribbles in a single game against United in the 2007/08 season.
Credit: EFE
With the national team, he was the top dribbler in the Copa América 2019, 2016 and 2015 (by a difference of 20), in addition to the 2014 World Cup (one of the highest dribbling figures in the history of the World Cups) and 2010. We can see his dominance in in the biggest stages.
Credit: Marca
Clearly with those numbers you can see how good he is in that attribute, and he is for many the best in history in that sense.
Yesterday, Barcelona tied 2-2 with Valencia at the Camp Nou, where Barça could have easily won with 2 big chances that were wasted, but in the end it did not happen, and Gómez gave the final equalizer. Once again, Messi was the best player in the pitch, with 1 goal, 4 shots on goal (10 in total), 6 dribbles, 1 big chance created, 3 key passes, 1 long ball, 1 cross, 9 ground duels won, 1 aerial duel won, received 3 fouls and gave 59 passes, easily a minimum 8/10.
Credit: Mundo Deportivo
Finally, after more than 15 years playing for Barcelona, he has beaten Pelé's record for the most goals in a single club, with 643 to 642, another great record for the best player in history, and he continues to show that he is one of the best in the world.
Credit: FC Barcelona
The result of the match could be seen coming, since the clinical attribute is quite needed in the forwards of Barcelona (xA of 4 for Messi without any assists yet in La Liga). It must be urgently improved if the title is to be won.
We all know how good Messi is, but one attribute that also makes him so good is his humility, and in this post I will mention Messi's humble actions and acknowledgments. Of course, I can't put all of his actions since he has so many of them.
I will first start with his humble actions. This includes his donation to the Garrahan Foundation of 500,000 euros, the number of autographs he gave in his career, his donation to CLÍNIC of 1 million euros, the creation of the Leo Messi Foundation, with the aim that all children had to have the same opportunities to realize his dreams, the many actions that he did as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, such as defending the rights of children with disabilities in Thailand, his visit to Haiti after being destroyed by an earthquake, he attended a fundraising event with the aim of saving children's lives, among many other actions in part of the organization. There is also the important fact that he does not consider himself the best player ever (he has never said so explicitly), unlike other players. Also, he himself said that he was more concerned about being a good person than a good player, which really denotes his humble character.
Now we will see his recognitions, which are: UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and the 2020 'Champion of Peace' Award for Peace and Sport, both extremely important, and which show that his humility and good actions are recognized by the world.
It is fascinating to know that, despite being without a doubt the best player in history, he does not let fame go to his head, being a person with a heart of gold.
The "The Best" award was awarded yesterday, and Messi finished third despite clearly being better than his opponent Ronaldo in the 2019/20 season. This just goes to show how high the standards are for Messi, and I'll show it below.
As it can be seen here, comparing them in their respective leagues and in reference to the other players in the other 4 top leagues, Messi clearly surpasses CR7 in everything except goals (and even then he beats him non-penalty wise), which leaves us with doubts as to how he got ahead in the award.
Let's not forget that Messi is doing it in a considerably more defensively intense league as well, according to the UtdArena's metric, in addition to data not posted such as passes to the last third of the pitch, passes to the penalty area, progressive passes, touches, nutmegs, progressive carrying distance, fouls received, among many others, and Messi wins in all of those categories of course.
There's also the Champions League, where Messi was easily clear of Ronaldo, with one less goal but with more assists, goals generated, key passes, throughballs, dribbles, MoTM per game and an average rating of 8.37 to 7.26, having played against considerably harder opponents in the tournament as well.
Despite all this, despite being clearly better, Ronaldo came out second instead of Messi, which is a disgrace, but it only shows the greatness of Messi, who despite having everything going for him, he was defeated because Ronaldo scored more goals and won more trophies, a shame, but that's what happens when you're so good that the standards for you are unreasonably high.
Barcelona managed to get the victory again against La Liga leaders Real Sociedad by a score of 2 to 1. Messi was once again vital, with two pre-assists and thus being a key part of both Barça goals. Let's also add 1 shot on target (3 in total), 4 dribbles, 2 key passes, 1 cross, 2 long balls, 9 ground duels won, 1 aerial duel won, 3 fouls received, made 2 tackles, gave 60 passes and had 89 touches, leaving him as the best player of the game for some. Of course, he is still the best in La Liga.
Barça is now in fifth position, 6 points from first place, and has gotten back into the fight for the title. He will play against Valencia, Valladolid, and Eibar before the end of the year, looking to win more points.
Barça had numerous chances to make the score more convincing, having 3 big chances missed, one of them a shot at the post, but nothing else changed. The most obvious one was Griezmann's open net miss, practically passing it to the goalkeeper instead. The clinical attribute should be more practiced in training, considering how prevalent this problem is, and the fact that Messi has an xA of 3.39 without being able to give a single assist even in La Liga.
xG, which refers to expected goals, is a metric used to see the performance of a player, with each shot having a specific xG. Good shooters usually have a lower xG than their actual goals, but for Messi, it is far too short for him.
He has been able to overperform his xG in every season since 2005/06, including the 2012/13 season, which had a 1 / 1,643,094 chance of happening, or 0.000061%, practically impossible. This shows how incredibly clinical he is, both in and out of the box, and yet another display of his unimaginable quality.
He also surpasses the xG both in and out of the box, with his weak and strong foot as well, proving that he is clinical in almost every category. The same thing happens with open plays, direct free kicks, corners and penalties, there is simply no way to measure him.
The phrase "UEFA Cristiano League" has been heard because of Ronaldo's apparent superiority in the competition, but in this post, I will show you how that is not the case, and it is indeed Messi who is superior.
First of all, Messi has a higher average of goals, assists, and goals generated per X minutes than Ronaldo. That already tells us a lot, in addition to the fact that Messi is the player with the fewest matches needed to reach 100 goals.
Since the 2009/10 season, Messi has more than double the dribbles completed, more key passes, more filtered passes, and more big chances created (since the 2015/16 season). As you can see, Messi has clear superiority.
Now we will take the average ratings from WhoScored. Since the 2009/10 season, Messi has been superior in the group stage, a round of 16, semi-finals, and finals. The total is a resounding 8.49 to 8.03, in addition to having 62 MoTM in 113 games against 38 in 122, a much higher average of MoTM. Also worthy to note that Messi beat Ronaldo in 7/11 Champions League seasons (8/12 counting the current one), which is quite a difference. It's fine to count from there considering that Ronaldo didn't pass the Round of 16 three times before that season and have an inferior performance than Messi in 2008/09.
In conclusion, as you can see, Messi is far superior to "Mr. Champions League", so if the competition were renamed to its most dominant player, it would be the UEFA Messi League.
Barça took it upon themselves to beat Levante in a difficult match before the winning goal came. Messi's game was phenomenal, with one goal, 6 shots on target (12 in total), 2 dribbles, 3 key passes, 2 big chances created, 3 centers, 6 ground duels won, 1 aerial won. 51 passes and 101 touches, which was enough for him to be the best player in the game. He, of course, remains the best player in La Liga.
With his goal, Messi reached 900 goals generated with Barcelona, his 600th goal with No. 10 shirt (in Barcelona), his 100th opening goal in La Liga, and finally, but much more importantly, he equaled Pelé's record for most goals in a single club. He also reached 250 home games in La Liga. Also, he reached 50 goal contributions this year, with 25 goals and 25 assists, as well as reaching 10 goals generated in this season, with 8 goals and 2 assists.
The game could have been easier for Barcelona if they had converted one of the 3 big chances that they missed, 2 generated by Messi, but they had to suffer through the game and it was Messi who had to rescue Barça and give him two more points.
There has been debate about the Ballon d'Ors that Messi deserved, but in this post I will explain in detail why Messi deserved all the Ballon d'Ors that he won, specifically those that are contested by some, which are: 2010, 2012, 2015, 2019. I'll go one by one, detailing why Messi deserved them (and explaining why his rival didn't deserve it more). I will use the ratings from WhoScored, a site created by football analysts who created an algorithm that analyzes more than 200 statistics and gives the player ratings. It starts from the 2009/10 season (varies by league but starts from there for major leagues), and is respected by many.
2010 Ballon d'Or
This is probably the most controversial Messi has ever won, but I'll explain why he deserved to win it. You have to know that, according to WhoScored, Messi was the best player in La Liga and in the Champions League, in addition to being 6th in the World Cup Golden Ball (I did not take it from WhoScored since they did not analyze that tournament). Now let's look at his first rival: Iniesta; He was 5th in the World Cup Golden Ball, but he was not the best player on his team in La Liga or in the Champions League (beaten by Xavi in both). Xavi, on the other hand, fell behind Messi in the World Cup Golden Ball, La Liga, and in the Champions League. Sneijder, despite being the 2nd best player in the World Cup, he was beaten by Lúcio as the best player on his team in Serie A (in addition to Maicon and Milito) and in the Champions League, having lower ratings than Messi as well. With this in mind, Messi deserved the Ballon d'Or in 2010.
Credit: EFE/Alessandro Della Bella
2012 Ballon d'Or
This will be easier to defend. Messi was the best player in La Liga and in the Champions League, as well as breaking the record for the most goals in a calendar year. On the other hand, Ronaldo fell behind Messi in both competitions and had a lower rating that year. It should be noted that he was one of the best in Euro 2012, but it is not enough for him to deserve the award more than Lio. Iniesta is also there, but he was not the best player on his team in the European Championship (beaten by Xavi, Busquets, David Silva, Xabi Alonso and Alba), nor was he in La Liga (narrowly beaten by Fàbregas and Alves) or in the Champions League (beaten by Xavi, Busquets, Alves and Fàbregas). Again, a victory for Messi.
Credit: Reuters/Michael Buholzer
2015 Ballon d'Or
The same thing is repeated, Messi the best player in La Liga and in the Champions League, in addition to the Copa América. Ronaldo was beaten in both, obviously. The same thing happens with Neymar, behind Messi in both competitions and in the Copa América as well. Easy for Messi.
Credit: Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann
2019 Ballon d'Or
Best player in La Liga and in the Champions League, as we expected, as well as being the 10th best in the Copa América (6 or more games). On the other hand, although Van Dijk was the best defender in the Premier League and the second-best in the UEFA Nations League, he was not in the Champions League (5th compared to defenders who played 11 or 12 games) and considering Messi's clear superiority in La Liga and in the Champions League, the victory is given to him. It should be noted that Ronaldo was not close to Messi's level in the domestic league level or the Champions League, and played only two games in the UEFA Nations League so not much can be said, in addition to having a lower average WhoScored rating, so it doesn't affect Messi either.
Messi is undoubtedly quite underrated when looking at his career with his national team. In this post I will show why it is not as bad as some think, and why, in fact, it was/is good.
National team
Messi holds numerous records with the albiceleste, such as being the top scorer, top assist, most goals in a calendar year in the national team (along with Batistuta), among others. I will put the specifics later in the World Cup and the Copa América.
World Cup
Messi holds multiple records in the tournament, such as being the only player to score in his teens, twenties, and thirties, the only player to assist in 4 different World Cups, and also being the player with the most MoTM in a single tournament, with 4. He also holds records in the albiceleste specifically, such as the youngest player to be captain, the most MoTM in the tournament in total, etc. Speaking of each World Cup individually, he was the fourth-best young player in 2006, the sixth-best player in 2010, the best player of the tournament in 2014 (World Cup Golden Ball), and despite not being in the top 10 in In 2018, WhoScored put him in the top 5. To be in the top 6 in 3/4 World Cups is a very difficult feat, and only top players on the international scene can achieve it, someone like Messi.
Copa América
He is the highest assister in the history of the competition, with 13, and also the player with the most MoTM in the history of the tournament, with 10. He was the best player in the 2007 edition, and he was the best player in 2015, receiving the Balloon of Gold of the Glass America. He was also in 2016, but according to SofaScore and did not receive the Ballon d'Or. He was also the second-best player in the 2015 and 2016 finals, creating a great opportunity in 2015. Having been the best player twice And having been in the Ideal Team 4/5 times, what he has done in the tournament is quite remarkable, and it denotes his quality as well.
Conclusion
With what has already been said, Messi is quite underrated with the Argentine team and deserves much more respect.
We all know that Messi is one of, if not the most complete player in history, but why do people call him that? In this entry, I'll explain by putting videos of Messi's several attributes, hope you enjoy it.
Some may know VAEP by now, which said that Messi was twice as good as Ronaldo in La Liga between 2013/14 and 2017/18, but if you don't know, it stands for Valuing Actions by Estimating Probabilities. In this entry, I'll show Messi's VAEP in his entire La Liga career, thanks to @GoalAnalysis' work using Statsbomb's data biography.
In terms of total VAEP, between the 2004/05 La Liga season and 2019/20 season, Messi has had a total VAEP of 411.93, 4 times more than Xavi's, who is his closest competitor in that regard. Speaking of the 2019/20 La Liga season, it was so good that it was better by far than any single player in Arsenal's Invincibles, believe it or not. So yes, it was far better than what people assume. Now I'll put some images related to it.
As we can see, Messi's total VAEP is simply in another league compared to his team-mates
Messi's total VAEP every season. Notice how it hasn't been below 20 since the 2008/09 season
It is clear here that in almost every single season that Messi has played for Barça in La Liga that he was the frontman by far
In terms of VAEP per 90, between the 2004/05 season and the 2018/19 season, Messi has had an average of 0.93, almost twice of Ronaldinho's, with 0.51, simply remarkable. Now I'll put some images about it.
Even though Messi was "nerfed", the superiority is still clear, even ahead of the likes fo Ronaldinho
Messi's VAEP per 90 every season. It's quite extraordinary to notice how many seasons he had more than 1 per 90
Even in per 90 averages, Messi's superiority over his team-mates ranging for over a decade is still crystal clear
Yesterday, on what may have been Messi's and Ronaldo's last game against each other, Barcelona lost 3-0 against Juventus, a heavy defeat that leaves them second in the group, a disgrace. Anyway, Messi made a good performance, with 7 shots on goal (11 in total), 4 dribbles, 7 duels on the ground won, 1 interception, 2 tackles, 3 key passes, 77 successful passes and 125 touches, being considered by some as the best player on the match despite the result.
Credit: BeSoccer
Another disaster of the team, which despite having one shot at the post from Griezmann, did not convert it, and was too dependent on Messi (all his shots on goal came from him). Without help for Leo from the other 10 players, he can't win games alone, even though he's done pretty much that for the past few years.
Anyway, Messi is still one of, if not the best player in the Champions League for some, which is phenomenal. We will see which team Barcelona will play in the Round of 16, but it seems that it will probably not be an easy one.
