Why Leo Messi is Streets Ahead of the Rest

When Lionel Messi completed a first-half hat-trick in the 43rd minute of Tuesday night's Champions' League game against Arsenal, there was a sound of hushed silence inside the magnificent Camp Nou stadium.

Messi ran to celebrate with his teammates, while 90,000-strong Barcelona supporters waited for the replay to be shown on a massive screen. It happened so fast in real-time that they could scarcely believe what they had seen—until the slow motion replay showed it in stunning clarity.

Messi had lifted the ball gracefully over the head of Manuel Almunia, at full pace, with two Arsenal defenders baring down on him. It was a goal of sublime quality; one Wayne Rooney would have envied.

It was a performance which made it painfully clear that Messi is streets ahead of Manchester United's current talisman and his predecessor, Cristiano Ronaldo.

During the midway point of the first half, caught out on the left wing and sandwiched in by three Arsenal players, Messi provided a glimpse of why he is peerless. He skipped past three tackles with the footwork of a ballerina, until Denilson scythed him down close to the middle of the park. Denilson and Clichy will have been among the most vehement Arsenal players to demand Messi's boots to check for the presence of glue.

In 42 games so far this season, the little Argentinian wizard has scored 39 goals. That's one more than he managed in the 50 games he played last season. In nine Champions League matches, he's scored eight times. Six have come in the knockout phase—one more than Wayne Rooney. He leads the way in La Liga with 26 goals in 27 appearances, including three hat-tricks. In contrast, Rooney has 26 in 29. 

But Messi doesn't just score goals. With 10 assists this season, he is second behind Xavi as Barcelona's best playmaker. He is the driving force in a Barcelona team who, as Ruud Gullit so eloquently put it, can function without Xavi, Iniesta, or Ibrahimovic but not their maestro.

Last night, Messi overtook Rivaldo as Barcelona's all-time leading scorer in Europe—an incredible feat considering he is only 22 years old. In doing so he became the first Barcelona player in history to score four goals in a European game.

Earlier in the season, he also became the first to score back-to-back hat-tricks in the league against Real Zaragoza and Valencia, coupled with a brace against Stuttgart in the first knockout stage of the Champions' League which took his tally to eight for that week. 

Saturday's El Clasico will provide another platform for Messi to demonstrate his superiority over the world's most expensive player and team. Ronaldo, it must be said, has had a major injury to contend with this season. Otherwise he might have been alongside Messi as the top scorer in La Liga.

Between them, they've plundered 44 league goals this season. On Saturday, the Bernabeu could witness an epic showdown between the current and former World Footballer of the Year. 

Messi has already staked his claim to retain that crown. His hero, the nonpareil Maradona, never received that accolade. If Messi inspires Barcelona to a second successive Champions' League title, and then Argentina to World Cup success in June, the footballing world will have to seriously consider admitting the little genius into the patheon of truly great footballers.

As of now, he is the best player of a generation. A magician who excels at legerdemain. A Barcelona legend at the age of 22. The prospect of him improving must send shivers down the spines of every team in Europe.

Jose Mourinho be forewarned: The real "Special One" is coming.