Lionel Messi is making history – and there’s more ahead

I love the notion of understanding that you are living a historical moment.

Some are obvious. The horror of 9/11. The amazing spectacle of a defeated Berlin Wall. It’s Obama!

But others aren’t so obvious. Some epochal moments unfold a little more slowly. So they sneak up on us. We sniff the air and smell the smoke, but we can’t find the fire. We know something is up – but what, exactly?

Well, I’m here to warn you, to set off the flashing red light. Pay attention, fellow fans of our beloved game: I think we’re seeing history.

Right now, it really is Leo Messi’s world. The rest of us are just living in it. What this little man, from Argentina via Spain, is accomplishing at the moment is nothing short of amazing. I believe his four-goal performance Tuesday at the Camp Nou wasn’t the main dish the Messi 2010 Dinner Party. Rather, it was a wee little hors d’oeuvre tray, stoking the appetite for what’s coming in South Africa this summer.

Here’s a great piece to explore as you think about the spring-loaded Messi, about how this compact bundle of skill, speed, balance and instinct is about to lead Argentina at World Cup 2010. This piece isn’t about his life and times, exactly; rather, it’s about how he performs his craft. It’s worth a few minutes.

Cristiano Ronaldo is a fabulous player. Wayne Rooney is emerging as one of the top strikers of his generation.

But Messi is something else. He’s peerless, and I think we could see him make this World Cup his the way Diego Maradona did in 1986.

Messi is just 22; Maradona was 26 when he reached the summit at World Cup Mexico. Still, the Barcelona man appears to have it in him. If we needed further proof before Tuesday, his historic night against Arsenal should have erased any lingering doubts. Plus, he’s got a great cast around him with the Albiceleste – regardless of Argentina’s curious qualifying struggles.

Even if Messi can’t grab this World Cup and carry it off into the magical places where myth mixes with narrative and history, he will at least begin gaining his rightful place alongside other World Cup legends: Pele, Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer, Michel Platini and Zinedine Zidane, among others.

Soak it up, fans. I think we’re on the front edges of history.