Lionel Messi was the second best player of 2009-10

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Topic: Lionel Messi was the second best player of 2009-10

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Konvict

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Date: 00:45 08/11 2010

Lionel Messi was the second best player of 2009-10

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On April 6, 2010, the institution of sportswriting ran out of superlatives to describe Lionel Messi.

The Argentina international had seen his name attached to reports featuring the words 'great' and 'phenomenal' since breaking into the Barcelona team as a teenager, but his virtuoso display in the Champions League against Arsenal was simply, well, I just can't put it into words.

That night Messi scored four times. But his utter mastery was such that it seemed he had the football on a string attached to his left foot. The English side were helpless, made to look foolish over the course of the match as Messi tore through their shoddy rearguard apart with the ease of a man in a child's game over and over again.

The whole thing reached a crescendo when he completed a 20-minute first-half hat-trick. His pace, poise and composure made it seem that he had an hour to decide what to do with the ball instead of mere seconds.

With a strut of his left foot, he lifted the ball over the goalkeeper and 90,000 fans from their seats at Camp Nou. If ever a goal were to prompt an involuntary audible response from a viewer, this was it. Poetry. Dominance. The story of Lionel Messi's season.

In the round previous, he scored twice against VfB Stuttgart. It was easy to feel pity for the German team; first they landed the bum draw by having to face Barcelona and then they came up against Messi in the form of his life in Catalunya.

His brace in that game comprised well-steered, tidy finishes. Stuttgart had no tonic. They were a standard below Messi. In total he scored eight goals in the Champions League before Barca's disappointing elimination in the semi-finals against eventual winners Inter.

Away from the Champions League, Messi would score another 39 times to yield a grand total of 47 goals over the course of the 2009-10 season. La Liga competition gave him an astonishing 34 of those goals, in 35 matches, including consecutive hat-tricks against Valencia and Real Zaragoza in early 2010. He was also on target at the Bernabeu in April to quieten Real Madrid's muted title bid.

Only the Brazilian legend Ronaldo has scored as many league goals for Barcelona in a season. It was a landmark campaign for Messi in a number of respects; he scored his 100th goal for Barca, against Sevilla, and overtook Rivaldo as the club's all-time Champions League top scorer too. It is testament to his individual superiority throughout the course of the term that the Liga Player of the Year award he received in June seems like a footnote.

Season 2008-09 had closed with unparallelled success for Barcelona. 2009-10 began in the same way with a win in the UEFA Super Cup against Shakhtar Donetsk with Messi prominent, assisting Pedro's winning goal. The trophies continued to bend to the will of the Blaugrana; Estudiantes were beaten in the Club World Cup in December with 'el Messias' netting the winning strike to make Barcelona champions on six fronts during the year.

The Abu Dhabi triumph followed in the wake of the Ballon d'Or, which he won by a record margin from Cristiano Ronaldo; the FIFA World Player of the Year gong would be taken too. Team honours were limited to the Liga title last season; the way Pep Guardiola has begun his tenure at the club, that almost seems like a failure.

Messi has not been able to replicate his domestic success at international level, leading some Argentina fans to derisively hand him the nickname 'the Catalan'. He would score only once for the Albiceleste throughout the course of the season, against Spain in a friendly defeat, as he struggled to carve out an identity in Diego Maradona's system.

Messi's World Cup was cut short peremptorily against Germany at the quarter-final stage, a game during which he barely had a kick. However, it seemed to be down to a failing of Argentina's tactics and their lack of cohesion, rather than Messi, that his best has yet to manifest itself in a national team shirt.

It was the year that Messi caught and eclipsed Cristiano Ronaldo, but it has never been about the individual plaudits for the modest 23-year-old. Trophies and titles are his fuel, the trinkets he yields along the way form only a part of the narrative he is constructing.

Messi is writing the story of football for the 21st century.

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Dushane

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Date: 19:28 08/21 2010

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Messi a the best footballer hands down!!!!! If u think otherwise probably u must be crazy even though everyone is entitle to their own opinion __________________

Big Wayne

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Date: 17:35 08/23 2010

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well he definitely didn't deserve to be number 1 this year not with wesley sneijder. __________________ BiG WaYnE GhEtTo FlExx 4 LiFe. GaZa Mi Seh.