Lionel Messi: 10 of the Best Moments of His Career

Lionel Messi is rather good at football. Five Spanish league titles and three Champions League winner's medals, all at the age of just 24, is proof of that.

To take just one recent example, last month the little master went three games without scoring for Barcelona. He responded with back-to-back hat-tricks.

It is not news to anyone with even the slightest comprehension of what football is that Messi is the greatest player in the world. I myself recently ranked him as the third-greatest player of all time, behind only Pele and Diego Maradona. The response to that assertion was, it's fair to say, mixed.

Nevertheless, if he maintains his levels of dazzling skill, absurdly high strike rate and greedy hogging of the major club and individual honours, then there seems little doubt he will eclipse those two before long.

Here are 10 of his greatest moments to date.

His First Barcelona Goal

This season Messi passed the 200-goal mark for Barcelona, despite not yet playing his 300th game for the club. 

The tone for his phenomenal goal scoring feats was set on his eighth senior appearance on May 1 2005, when he hit what at the time made him the club's youngest ever goalscorer. 

Samuel Eto'o had already put Barca 1-0 up against Albacete at the Camp Nou when in the 90th minute, Messi fed Ronaldinho and ran into the box, received the return pass lifted over the top from the Brazilian and casually dinked the ball over the onrushing keeper, Raul Valbuena.  

Winning the World Youth Championship

Just two months after opening his account for Barca and picking up his first league winner's medal, Messi won his first international honour at the FIFA World Youth Championship in Netherlands.

Messi was the outright star of the tournament, scoring in every one of the Argentina's knockout matches, including both his team's goals in the final win over Nigeria to claim the title for his country for the fifth time.

His six goals also saw him claim Golden Boot, as well as the Golden Shoe award as the best player at the tournament.

His Hat-Trick in the Clasico

This moment in the 2006-07 is seen by many as when Messi was declassified as an immensely talented star of the future and truly marked his arrival.

Real Madrid had beaten Barca 2-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu the previous October. Just as in that game, Real took a very early lead in the return fixture at Camp Nou on March 10, 2007.

Ruud van Nistelrooy opened the scoring on four minutes. Messi responded with his first goal against his club's biggest enemies six minutes later. Van Nistelrooy gave Los Merengues the lead almost immediately, but Messi again levelled on 27 minutes.

Oleguer was sent off just before the break for the homes side, and when Sergio Ramos scored with less than 20 minutes remaining, it looked like Real were going to have the double done over them.

However, Messi's clinical strike from inside the box with only three minutes remaining secured his first treble for his club.

'Messidona' Scores Against Getafe

The following month from that historic hat-trick, Messi again made headlines around the world for his spectacular goal in the Copa del Rey semi-final against Getafe.

Messi picked the ball up just inside his own half and surged forward, beating one man after another before rounding goalkeeper Roberto Abbondanzieri and scoring a goal eerily reminiscent of that netted by Diego Maradona against England at the 1986 World Cup.

The Spanish press could not contain themselves, and one headline dubbed the Barca star 'Messidona'.

Winning Olympic Gold

There are some people who remain adamant that Messi can never be considered one of the true greats of the game until he has won the World Cup.

Leaving aside that absurd and deeply-flawed argument, the ultimate prize in international football will continue to elude Messi if Argentina continues to be so poorly run.

Until such time, however, he can look at the gold medal he won at the Beijing Games in August 2008 as yet another achievement in a glittering career.

He scored twice in a run to the final which featured a 3-0 win over a Brazil side captained by former Barca team-mate Ronaldinho, and he set up Angel di Maria's winner in the gold medal match against Nigeria.

His Goal in the Champions League Final in Rome

Messi's goal, the second in a 2-0 win over Manchester United, is notable enough for it being scored via a header, something the five-foot-seven forward as not exactly made a habit of doing in his career.

It also saw him take centre stage in a European Cup final for the first time, after he played no part in the comeback win over Arsenal in Paris in 2006, and extended his total for the tournament to nine goals, seeing him top the scoring charts by two clear goals.

But, perhaps most significantly, he did it on a pitch he shared with Cristiano Ronaldo, the reigning World Player of the Year. With the Portuguese unable to lead his team to defending the trophy, it was a symbolic moment which saw the baton of the world's best player passed on to Messi, who has barely loosened his grip on it since.

His Four Goals Against Arsenal

By the time Barca played Arsenal in the last 16 of the Champions League in 2009/10, Messi was the undisputed best player in the world.

After the two sides had shared four goals at the Emirates Stadium, the return fixture saw something extra special from Messi.

Nicklas Bendtner gave the Gunners an early lead to put them ahead on aggregate, but that was as good as it got for Arsene Wenger's side.

Messi responded with a rocket of a strike from the edge of the area, a neat finish inside the box, an effortless chip over the helpless Manuel Almunia and a cheeky pass between the keeper's legs in the closing stages to register his first ever four-goal haul in one of the most scintillating individual performances ever seen in the European Cup.

Barcelona 5-0 Real Madrid

One of the most astonishing results in recent years, last season's Clasico at Camp Nou is not just a highlight for Messi but for every Barca player that night last November, just as it is the nadir of every player unfortunate to be wearing white that evening.

Messi did not score in this clinical dissection of Barca's bitter rivals—it was the first time in 10 games in which he failed to find the net—but his performance was a truly influential and masterful one.

His clever movement and neat, simple passing for the most part allowed his team-mates to exploit the spaces opening up in the Real back line to devastating effect, and he set up both of David Villa's goals before Sergio Ramos was sent off in the dying moments for a nasty tackle made out of frustration. all in all, a good night's work. 

His Goal in the Champions League Final at Wembley

Last May, United was looking for revenge over Barca in (kind of) their own back yard. The Red Devils won their first European Cup at Wembley, and their second in Barcelona, so wouldn't it be fitting to win their third by combining the two?

They were still in touch at half-time after Wayne Rooney cancelled out Pedro Rodriguez's opener, but Messi knocked the wind right out of their sails when he scored nine minutes after the break. 

While his goal was hardly a classic by his or anyone else's standards—his low shot from 25 yards was right at Edwin van der Sar but the Dutch keeper let it past him—it still represent something of a landmark for him in that it was his first goal on English soil at the ninth attempt. Oh, and it won him his third Champions League winner's medal too. 

Winning the 2011 Super Copa De Espana

Even those suffering from 'Clasico-fatigue' following Barca and Real meeting four times in just 17 days at the business end of last season cannot have helped but be shook out of their fink by Messi's match-winning exploits in the Super Copa de Espana in mid-August.

After he scored in the 2-2 draw at the Bernabeu, he was imperious: he picked out Andres Iniesta with a superb pass to open the scoring, and then put his team back in front on the stroke of half-time when he latched on to Gerard Pique's backheel and finished with aplomb.

Karim Benzema's 82nd-minute leveller threatened to send the thriller into extra time, but Messi settled the matter four minutes from time with a stunning finish to convert Adriano's cross.

The final whistle brought with it an unseemly scrap that featured such delights as Jose Mourinho poking Barca coach Tito Vilanova in the eye, but the record books will show yet another Barcelona trophy won thanks to Lionel Messi.