As his team-mates lofted him six feet into the air, Camp Nou united with long, bellowing chants of'Messi'nd the stadium announcer delivered confirmation that the Argentine had indeed created even more history. He's still just 27 and the record has fallen in 289 appearances.
Lionel Messi Becomes All-Time Top Goalscorer In La Liga AND Champions League History In The Space Of Four Days
It’s quickly becoming nigh-on impossible to keep track of the milestones Lionel Messi seemingly passes on a game-to-game basis, but even by his own inimitable standards, last Saturday’s was a biggie.
On Saturday, he surpassed Telmo Zarra’s long-standing record (251 goals) to become La Liga’s all-time top-scorer with a hat-trick in Barca’s 5-1 win over Sevilla – thus taking his total haul to 253.
Skip forward four days and a back-to-back hat-trick against APOEL Nicosia saw Messi break Raul’s Champions League goal record (which he equalled with a Barca against Ajax last time out), with the Barca star scoring his 72nd, 73rd and 74th goals in the competition to move clear at the top of the pile.
Sealing both records with a hat-trick? What a show-off…
So, as things currently stand, Messi is top scorer in La Liga, Champions League, Barcelona and El Clasico history and he’s still only 27-years-old. Outstanding.
While we appreciate that the “greatest of all time” debate is entirely subjective and largely unquantifiable, one look at Messi’s Record of Achievement is certainly enough to sway our vote…
Sometimes it can be difficult to explain how and why he is so good - time will certainly give us more perspective - but Brian Phillips recently had a good go. "It’s as if your brain is registering microdegrees of movement that your eye can’t really see," Phillips wrote. "When he does the surprising thing, it looks normal, because you already felt a steady-state, low-level surprise watching him do the normal thing."
Kick-off between Apoel Nicosia and Barcelona was delayed slightly because of the smoke of a flare
"I am happy for having achieved such a nice record in a competition of this importance," said the 27-year-old.
"But the really relevant thing is that we took the three points.
"Barcelona played a great match."
On Saturday evening, Barcelona boss Luis Enrique suggested that when he watches him in training, he sometimes thinks that "he is not human". And Ronaldo has been the only human who has even been capable of moving so far ahead of the football world with Messi. That's says all you need to know about the dedication, physique and hunger to be the best which fills the 29-year-old.
But, even though he's expected to win his third Ballon d'Or in January, he'll always be chasing the innate ability and child-like gratification for the game that has allowed Messi to flourish.
The little Argentine was back in training on Sunday morning in Barcelona. He'd played down the record his teammates and the public have been rightly scrambling to big up - he doesn't often feel the need to gloat or go on about his individual records. Having the ball at his feet is enough.
