Messi joins the greats in Barcelona
Source: Agencies |
March 22, 2012, Thursday
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Print Edition
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LIONEL Messi now has a prized record to show that he is arguably the best player to ever don Barcelona's burgundy and blue shirt.
The forward wrote his name into the club's history books in emphatic fashion on Tuesday with yet another hat-trick to become the club's all-time leading scorer with 234 goals.
"We are before the best player in absolutely every facet," Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola said. "He is capable of everything that a football player must do and he does it every three days.
"I am sorry for those who want to dethrone him, but he is simply different from all the rest."
Messi scored his 18th career hat-trick for the Catalan giants to break Cesar Rodriguez's record of 232 that had stood for 57 years, resisting the best efforts of the other greats that have made their names at Camp Nou stadium. And while Cesar set the mark in 13 seasons from 1942-1955, the 24-year-old Messi needed just under eight campaigns to pass his milestone.
"Messi has entered the history of the club at just 24 years of age," Guardiola said. "If he continues like this in the coming years, he will score so many goals that he will never be surpassed."
Guardiola said that Messi was to football what Chicago Bulls great Michael Jordan was to basketball.
"Jordan dominated his sport and Messi dominates this one," the former midfielder said. "The first thing about Messi to point out is his mentality. He has great quality, of course. But the important thing is his mental strength."
Messi's latest scoring performance led Barcelona to a tougher-than-expected 5-3 win over Granada in a game his team could not afford to lose if it wanted to stay in the hunt for a fourth straight Spanish league title.
The Argentina international fired in a cross by Isaac Cuenca in the 17th minute to match Cesar's record, and then added two more off passes from Dani Alves to secure the win after Granada had come back to pull even at 2-2.
Messi, the three-time world player of the year, has scored 54 goals in all competitions this season, including a Champions League-record five goals in one game just under two weeks ago.
The forward wrote his name into the club's history books in emphatic fashion on Tuesday with yet another hat-trick to become the club's all-time leading scorer with 234 goals.
"We are before the best player in absolutely every facet," Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola said. "He is capable of everything that a football player must do and he does it every three days.
"I am sorry for those who want to dethrone him, but he is simply different from all the rest."
Messi scored his 18th career hat-trick for the Catalan giants to break Cesar Rodriguez's record of 232 that had stood for 57 years, resisting the best efforts of the other greats that have made their names at Camp Nou stadium. And while Cesar set the mark in 13 seasons from 1942-1955, the 24-year-old Messi needed just under eight campaigns to pass his milestone.
"Messi has entered the history of the club at just 24 years of age," Guardiola said. "If he continues like this in the coming years, he will score so many goals that he will never be surpassed."
Guardiola said that Messi was to football what Chicago Bulls great Michael Jordan was to basketball.
"Jordan dominated his sport and Messi dominates this one," the former midfielder said. "The first thing about Messi to point out is his mentality. He has great quality, of course. But the important thing is his mental strength."
Messi's latest scoring performance led Barcelona to a tougher-than-expected 5-3 win over Granada in a game his team could not afford to lose if it wanted to stay in the hunt for a fourth straight Spanish league title.
The Argentina international fired in a cross by Isaac Cuenca in the 17th minute to match Cesar's record, and then added two more off passes from Dani Alves to secure the win after Granada had come back to pull even at 2-2.
Messi, the three-time world player of the year, has scored 54 goals in all competitions this season, including a Champions League-record five goals in one game just under two weeks ago.
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