Lionel Messi's Game Going Beyond Human, and There's More to Come

CAMP NOU, Barcelona — The goal at the end, in the 90th minute, was unnecessary; the watching world was already convinced. In the week in which Cristiano Ronaldo won the Ballon d’Or, Lionel Messi proved he is still the world’s best player.

With Real Madrid playing against Kashima Antlers in the Club World Cup final on Sunday morning (11:30 a.m. Spanish time), it was easy to draw contrasts between the performances of the two men.

Ronaldo scored a hat-trick and fired his team to the title, 4-2 after extra-time, showcasing his extraordinary talent for finding the net.

The Real forward’s statistics are brutal and, across the last decade, no other player on the planet has been able to hold a candle to him—bar one, though whether he comes from this planet is open to debate. 

"Leo, the alien," ran one headline in Marca, after Barcelona's resounding 4-1 win over Espanyol. "Fantasy moves, goals with nutmegs, assists… an insanity," added AS.

Manu Fernandez/Associated Press/Associated Press

Espanyol coach Quique Sanchez Flores and his Barcelona counterpart Luis Enrique are not on friendly terms. The latter snubbed the idea of the traditional photocall ahead of Catalan derbies where they meet and greet each other the day before the game.

It stems back to when they were team-mates at Real Madrid, with Catalunya Radio (h/t Sport) claiming that they were friends in their first season but in the second, 1995-96, the relationship soured.

Regardless, the one thing they agreed on after the game was Messi.

Sanchez Flores said in his post-match press conference: 

"

It's difficult to stop [Messi and Andres Iniesta], we're talking about the best footballers playing together. They bring beauty to football, they create so much space. It was a normal game until Messi disrupted our defensive order. It had gone as expected. 

Messi changes every game. He stops time. He’s the only player who could score a hat-trick in every game if he wanted to. 

[…]

I congratulated Leo for his humility. He doesn’t complain, throw himself to the ground or say anything. It’s impressive and there’s a good vibe between us. I don’t know how many of his shirts I have now—my son is a Barcelona fan and he always asks me to get Leo’s shirt.

"

Meanwhile, his opposite number was in agreement, urging fans not to take for granted the magic that Messi brings to the pitch. Luis Enrique said: "We cannot get accustomed to what Leo Messi does. It is something unique and we shouldn’t get used to it."

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Messi’s game was a work of art, with the pinnacle being his work in the buildup to Luis Suarez’s second goal.

Barcelona were leading 1-0 after the Uruguayan had raced on to Iniesta’s inch-perfect long ball, controlling it sublimely and dispatching it clinically into the far corner. They were dominating the game, passing the ball fluidly and giving Espanyol little opportunity to butt in, but possession hadn’t led to a high number of goalscoring chances. 

In the second half Messi changed that. Espanyol packed the defence and tried to crowd out the star, but he still got through. After receiving the ball from Iniesta—who worked miracles himself to keep it despite heavy pressure—the Argentina international nutmegged one defender, confounded several more with beautiful bodywork and worked space for a shot.

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It was like watching a younger Messi; one we don’t see much these days as the years have changed his physicality, and he has adapted his game to that.

New Messi is the cleverer, more considered player, but old Messi provided a thrill that had fans howling in disbelief. In this match he combined the two.

Off-balance by now—though any other player would have been positively dizzy—Messi stabbed a shot at goal that goalkeeper Roberto repelled, although Suarez was on hand to ram home the rebound and double Barcelona’s lead.

"Rather than me scoring the second goal, I’d have preferred Messi to finish off that great move," he told Movistar Plus after the game. "It’s a PlayStation move. He is such a unique player."

For a dead-eyed killer like Suarez to wish a goal away—he and Messi are now joint top scorers in the Pichichi chart with 12—it takes something special.

The striker paid Messi back at the death with a magnificent dinked pass over a defender for the Argentinian to prod home.

However, by that point there was no doubt left anyway. Among various other moves, passes and moments of sheer quality, his assist for Jordi Alba’s goal—Barcelona’s third—was supreme too.

It was another mazy dribble that left what had been the tightest defence in La Liga, across the previous nine games, kicking and clutching at thin air.

While it may seem unfair to compare Messi to Ronaldo at this moment, when the Portuguese is past his peak, the argument against that is the latter winning the Ballon d’Or this year. It was a predictable, understandable decision but a wrong one, if the award truly does belong to the world’s best player.

It’s not just that what Messi does is beautiful, where Ronaldo bludgeons, but that he is effective across an entire game, rather than for key moments. It is that the South American’s skill level is inhuman, that he plays as a central midfielder, winger and striker all at once, and he rarely makes mistakes.

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Ronaldo’s game against Kashima was littered with errors, which did not matter in the end because he ended up with a hat-trick.

Last time Ronaldo won the Ballon d’Or it acted as an inspiration for Messi, who had fallen into what—by his standards—could be considered a minor dip. He picked up his game, Barcelona picked up theirs and won the treble.

While he is playing at an extremely high level, there’s the chance that it could have a similar effect again. After all, Messi has no ceiling. There is no way of telling where his boundaries are, because he sets them; for himself and for football.

Rik Sharma is Bleacher Report's lead Barcelona correspondent. All information and quotes obtained firsthand unless specified. Follow him on Twitter here: @riksharma_.