TheCable

On Monday night, Lionel Messi, the Barcelona and Argentine maestro, took home a sixth Ballon d’Or gong at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris. His two sons celebrated wildly as their magician dad approached the stage to receive his latest Golden Ball that adds to those awarded in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015 respectively.

Liverpool’s rock-solid defender, Virgil van Dijk and the irrepressible Cristiano Ronaldo were second and third respectively, and although many backed the former, did he do enough to outshine Messi? van Dijk won the Champions League, led rejuvenated Netherlands to the UEFA Nations League final and almost helped Liverpool to a first EPL crown in 29 years.

All these he achieved without being dribbled past in 68 official matches, helping Alisson Becker to 21 clean sheets in the EPL and was the rock on which Jurgen Klopp built his pacey Liverpool side.

Collectively, it was not a perfect year for Messi and Barcelona who won the Spanish La Liga with Messi instrumental. They, however, crumbled in the UEFA Champions League semifinals against Liverpool and lost the Copa Del Rey final to Valencia. Through it all, in a Barcelona side that Coach Ernesto Valverde has made to look disjointed and bereft of ideas in most matches, Messi was the shining light.

However, impressive van Dijk’s record is, does a certain 32-year-old wizard’s individual record deserve this latest individual award despite suffering a sad end to his European adventure at the hands of van Dijk’s Liverpool. If, according to France Football, organisers of the award, the Ballon d’Or honours the player- not the team- who has performed the best during the year in focus, then, Messi’s moments of genius in 2019 rightly overcome the challenge of van Dijk, who was magnanimous in defeat.

The magical performances are almost on a weekly basis and two standouts are mentioned. Sevilla saw, first-hand, Messi’s magic in February’s 2-4 loss, the Ballon d’Or winner delivering another hattrick- including a delicate chip- and assisting Suarez’s goal. The defeat, despite Sevilla outplaying Barca for much of the match, saw their striker Wissam Ben Yedder claiming Messi was “a player from another planet.”

Against Lyon in the UCL knockout phase, Messi was involved in four of five goals in a 5-1 win, scoring a panenka penalty and another out-of-the-world goal. He picked the ball from around the centre of the pitch, dribbled past one, sent two defenders sprawling on the floor with a fake shot and tapped into the bottom corner, the Camp Nou crowd hailing their king.

Afterwards, Lyon’s Nabil Fekir stated that “history’s best player made it impossible for us. When he’s not scoring he’s assisting. When he’s not assisting he’s play-making. It was impossible. He [Messi] is impossible.” Perhaps, it is impossible to stop Messi and the year’s statistics accumulated proves it.

He has scored 46 goals for club and country in the calendar year and was involved in 63 goals in the same period with 17 assists. For Barcelona, his 51 goals and 22 assists in all competitions in the 2018/19 season brought him the Golden Shoe- his sixth- for scoring 36 goals in 34 league games, the highest in Europe.

Messi, who became Barcelona captain at the start of the 2018/19 season, scored the club’s 6000th league goal with a free kick under the wall, set the record for most UCL hattricks with his eighth at PSV. He also scored his 400th league goal (now on 420) to become the first player in Europe’s top league to achieve the feat.

He equaled Ronaldo’s La Liga record of 34 hattricks, broke Ronaldo and Raul’s record of scoring against 33 opponents in the UCL with his goal against Borussia Dortmund (his 34th), and also scored his 600th career goal against Liverpool.

During the year, he has also created more chances for teammates (92) than any other player and 78 were from open play, completed more passes (1139) and also scored more direct free kicks (six) than anyone.

He failed to win the UCL as promised but he was the highest goalscorer with 12 goals, including the magical 30-metre free kick against Liverpool. The genius has 10 goals in 13 games this season already despite starting the season late due to injury, and despite his advancing years, has perfected a new skillset in his Arsenal- free kicks.

He has scored four already this season, averaging one goal from every three free kicks taken and if he does continue to age like wine, he could be adding more accolades in the coming months. Maybe another Balon d’Or next year.