The talks about Lionel Messi's place in the soccer pantheon has raged for years, but on Sunday night he added yet another reason to cement his legacy as the world's greatest player.
Messi finally toppled Gerd Müller's 40 year record of 85 goals in a calendar year when he scored twice in a Spanish league match against Real Betis to lead Barcelona to a 2-1 win. Throughout 2012, Messi has played just 66 matches in 13 different countries. He has scored in just eight countries and all of his 86 goals came in just 44 matches. His greatest highlights include scoring five goals on March 7th against Bayer Leverkuson in a 7-1 Champions League drubbing, adding four on May 5th against Espanyol in a Spanish League, and scoring a hat trick against Brazil in a friendly in New Jersey on June 9th .
Aside from this record, Messi has already won a record breaking three Ballon d'Or (in three straight years no less). By all indications, he looks to be the first player to win the award for four times. He would also be the first player to win the award four consecutive years. He has also won the UEFA Champions League three times, which while not a record, is certainly a major success. He has won every Spanish League trophy imaginable with Barcelona, but is missing just one major piece of hardware to solidify his legacy: the World Cup.
Best Player of All Time?
NY Times reporter Andrew Das notes that Messi has never been particularly impressive for his home country of Argentina. While his goal scoring numbers of 31 goals in 76 appearances are comparable to Argentine legend Diego Maradona's 34 in 91, Messi has never achieved success on the world's largest stage. He has scored one goal in two World Cups, but was invisible in 2010 when Argentina lost to Germany in the quarter finals. In that tournament he scored no goals for his home team despite being a regular fixture in the starting lineup. Because of that, Das argues that "the true worshipers at the churches of Pelé and Maradona will always rate Messi below their idols in the debate about the greatest player of all time."
Tim Keeney of Bleacher Report makes the same assessment and notes that "But, to be considered the greatest of all time, a player must dominate the competition at both the club and international level. Messi has half of that equation down."
There is no doubt about one thing among a number of pundits however; with 86 goals in a calendar year, Messi is easily the greatest goal scorer in the sport.