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2018 was a mixed one for Lionel Messi. First putting up a no-show as AS Roma shockingly overturned a 4-1 first leg deficit with a 3-0 victory in the second leg to knock Barcelona out at the quarter-final stage of last season's Champions League which led to heavy criticism.
He then suffered the mother of all heartbreaks with his home nation as he captained a woeful Argentina team to the World Cup in a second round elimination, with his performance once again drawing ire from fans worldwide including his compatriot the great Diego Maradona.
Even though he led Barcelona to another domestic double of La Liga and Copa Del Rey, his failures at the aforementioned tournaments meant that a lot of people classified Messi's season as a failure.
The result was that Messi saw himself miss out on a podium finish in all trio of individual awards - the FIFA and UEFA Best as well as the Ballon d'Or which marked the first time this had happened in over a decade.
To make matters worse, the Argentine maestro also saw his status as an all-time great questioned by none other than Pele himself who made a lot of spurious allegations against Messi including that he could not score with his head, plays with only one foot and has just one skill.
As preposterous as Pele's claims and his exclusion from the podium were, Messi has largely remained silent over the issue, preferring to do his talking the only way he knows how - on the field, with the result being that the 31-year-old has begun this season in frightening form as though he is on a mission to silence his doubters and remind everyone of how good he is.
For all the talk of Messi having a poor year, 2018 was actually not that bad, as he still set the benchmark in a number of ways, setting the template for others to follow. In this piece, we would take a look at six records which the mercurial Argentine set in the year 2018.
#6 Winning the European Golden Boot for the fifth time
Last term, Lionel Messi led the way in terms of goals scored in La Liga, plundering 34 goals in 36 matches, which was 10 more than anyone else aged and was enough to hand him the Golden Boot in La Liga as well as lead Barcelona to the league title.
His 34 goals were also more than anyone else managed on the European continent, meaning that the Argentine record goalscorer was handed the European Golden Shoe for the fifth time in his career.
Remarkably, nobody else in history has managed more which further underlines how great a goalscorer Lionel Messi is.
Also see : Gold Cup Standings, Copa America Standings, Womens World Cup Bracket
#5 Highest goal involvement ratio in 2018
Lionel Messi is not only one of the greatest players and goalscorers in the history of the game, he is also arguably the greatest playmaker football has ever witnessed and this is evident by the high number of assists and chances he creates for teammates.
On his day, Lionel Messi has the key to unlock any defense, possessing the innate ability to find teammates in the tightest of spaces with pin-point deliveries and Barcelona have undoubtedly been the better off for having him within their ranks for the last 15 years.
The Barca talisman ended 2018 with 51 goals and 26 assists from 54 matches, which totals to a staggering 77 goals that he was involved in for club and country this year at a rate of about 1.4 goals/game.
His goal involvement ratio for 2018 placed him significantly ahead of everyone else in Europe's top five leagues and made a mockery of those who suggested Messi has begun to lose form
#4 Most freekick goals in 2018
Becoming a freekick specialist is one of the more difficult tasks in football, as the technique and expertise required to bend the wall over the net and into the back of the net is one which not may perfect.
However, just like almost every other thing in his career, the mercurial Argentine seems to have not only mastered the art of freekick taking but has turned it into an art-form, with the ball all but guaranteed to nestle in the back of the net once he stands over a freekick.
The 31-year-old got a brace of freekicks in the 5-0 derby mauling of Espanyol in La Liga, which marked the first time in his illustrious career that he had scored from two direct freekicks in the same match.
It also took him to 10 freekick goals in 2018, which is more than anyone else managed in the calendar year.
#3 Most UCL goals scored for one club
One of the greatest subplots in football over the last decade has been the longstanding rivalry between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to determine who the greatest player in the world is.
It has been such an intense battle that even ten years down the line, the margins for separation between the pair is so thin that it is virtually impossible to tell who the better of the two is.
Both men set about reshaping the footballing world in a manner not seen before or possibly ever again, setting records almost on a weekly basis and redefining what was termed impossible.
Lionel Messi was the first of the pair to break Raul's previous record for most goals scored in the Champions League, but Ronaldo beat him to 100, taking it one step further by becoming the first man to score 100 UCL goals for a single club.
Seeing as Messi has played for Barcelona all his professional life, Ronaldo's departure to Juventus paved the way for him and it was only a matter of time before he smashed the UCL goals record for a single club.
As it happened, the Argentine made the record all his with his strike against PSV in November which took him to 106 goals in the Champions League for Barcelona and one ahead of his eternal rival who only managed 105 for Real Madrid.
#2 Only player in history to have scored 10+ goals in 13 consecutive seasons
Lionel Messi onto the scene as a prodigiously talented teenager with his exploits at the FIFA World Youth Championship (now U20 World Cup) giving him global recognition.
He had earlier made his Barcelona bow a year prior having joined the La Masia ranks as a very young boy with the club offsetting his medical bills to treat a hormone deficiency in exchange for getting him.
Since then, the Rosario born native has grown from strength to strength and become of the greatest players in the history of the sport.
Having initially found playing time hard to come by, Lionel Messi fully broke into the senior side in the 2006/2007 season, earning rave reviews for his hat-trick against Real Madrid in the El Clasico, which was among 14 goals he scored in La Liga that season.
It was to be the first time Messi hit double figures in the league and since then he has not looked back, with his current tally of 15 in the current season meaning that he has managed to hit 10+ goals in each of the last 13 seasons consecutively in La Liga.
#1 Most La Liga appearances for a non-Spanish player
Barcelona fans would forever be grateful to Carles Rexach, for legend has it that he is the man who was responsible for Lionel Messi coming on to Barcelona, famously drafting his first ever contract with the club on a piece of napkin as there was no formal contract paper on his person at that moment.
Since turning out for Barcelona as a 13-year-old, Lionel Messi has gone on to cement his legacy as unarguably the greatest player in the club's history.
With Messi in their ranks, Barcelona have gone on to win 33 major honours among which are nine La Liga crowns and four Champions League trophies, including a double treble.
In September of 2018, Lionel Messi was named in the starting lineup to face Girona, which marked the 423rd time he was representing Barca in La Liga, breaking the previous record of 422 which was held by Dani Alvez as the highest number of La Liga appearances for a non-Spanish player.
Since then, Messi has further made the record his and currently has 433 La Liga appearances which has yielded 398 goals and 159 assists, with nine of those campaigns ending in a triumph for Barcelona.
