Do you remember when Lionel Messi was reportedly weighing a move away from Barcelona? When he was struggling post-World Cup, lagging behind Cristiano Ronaldo, surpassed by Neymar as the Blaugrana's biggest star? He has 41 goals in 38 games now.
Lionel Messi is the best player in the world again
Welcome the Barcelona star back to the throne.
David Ramos/Getty Images
At the winter break, Messi had 12 goals to Ronaldo's 25. Three months later and two weeks before a decisive Clásico, he has two more goals than his Real Madrid rival, who hasn't even put a shot on target in four of his last eight matches. Ronaldo won the race to pass Telmo Zarra for the most hat tricks in La Liga history, but Messi's put up a handful since then and took the record for himself with his three-goal performance in a 6-1 win over Rayo Vallecano on Sunday.
These numbers are notable enough by themselves, but the type of goals Messi is scoring matters just as much as the fact that he’s scoring them. This is the one that completed his hat trick against Rayo.
That’s not just a goal, that’s a 2011-12 season Messi goal. The quick feet, the pace to glide by two defenders like they’re not there, the keeper fake-out, the second fake-out, the narrow angle finish. This is the kind of stuff that a much younger edition of Messi, before his multiple hamstring injuries, did regularly.
It's not easy to figure out where this came from, since Messi's struggles appeared to have more to do with fatigue than anything else. He came back from injuries too early on multiple occasions over the last two seasons, was Argentina's most important player throughout the World Cup, then had to downright carry them on his own after Angel Di Maria got hurt. Messi has looked like a player in need of a very long rest for a few years. Apparently a couple of weeks off in the middle of the winter was all he needed, though Luis Suarez beginning to understand his teammates and Barcelona's philosophy certainly hasn't hurt.
Considering how poor the start was by his standards, Messi’s numbers are pretty ridiculous. He already has two more league goals than he did last season and the same number of goals in all competitions. His absurd 73-goal campaign will probably stand as his best for the rest of his career, but he can match or better any of his other seasons. This is happening while Barcelona have coasted into the Copa del Rey final and to the top of La Liga, heading into the final league Clásico in considerably better form than Madrid. They got arguably the most difficult Champions League draw possible and won away to Manchester City in the first leg. Messi and Barca really couldn’t be performing any better.
By any standard, Barcelona are one of the top two sides in the world at the moment, alongside Bayern Munich, and Messi is the planet’s form player. No one was predicting this three months ago, but December feels like it was part of an entirely different season now.
How, exactly, did anyone doubt Messi?
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