Man with the golden boot

It would be tempting to call anybody who broke Gerd Muller's record 85 goals in a single calendar year — in the most exhaustingly competitive region playing the sport — the greatest footballer ever. But that is, without a doubt, dangerous territory. If football were only about scoring goals, Messi's Barcelona teammate Andres Iniesta would never have featured among the contenders for the Ballon d'Or and finished third. Yet, the statistic of 79 goals for club and another 12 for country only adds to the aesthetic treat of Messi on the pitch. Those 91 goals still conceal the fact that, last February, Messi scored four goals in a single match for the second time in his career as Barca made mincemeat of Valencia with a 5-1 scoreline. But it was in March that the dykes were overcome when he netted five in Barca's 7-1 triumph over Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League. Is that enough to propel Messiah Leo over the shoulders of Maradona, Pele, Eusebio, Puskas, George Best, et al? As said, that's dangerous territory. We can't go there.

Nor can we say that Messi has become the thing-in-itself in world football despite club and country. Argentina has little to do with the legend that has been born. Without doubt, Messi's fourth Ballon d'Or is the triumph of the individual, given his country's long international drought and his club's fall from glory last year. But without Barca, would Messi be where he is? It was in the prompt acknowledgement of Iniesta's contribution in his acceptance speech in Zurich that Leo reiterated the strength of the unit he is kingscorer of. It's a machine so well-oiled, even in a bad year, and with such a perfected style, harmonising every player, that Spain made footballing history by becoming the first side to defend the European Championship last year playing Barcelona's game, even as Barca misfired. That Barca has been behind the Spanish domination of world football for the last four years is well known. For 44 years, La Roja had choked in every tournament till the Catalonian team's model was imposed on it before Euro 2008, throwing out anybody who didn't fit, including the likes of Raul Gonzalez. If Messi is part of that Barca team, he has as much made it as been made by it. But not by Argentina.

... contd.

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