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What's the story?
According to stats compiled by the Football Planet, Lionel Messi ranks sixth amongst players from Europe's top five leagues (England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France) in terms of dribbles completed per 90 minutes. Messi's arch-rival Cristiano Ronaldo has failed to make it to the top ten in the list, which is restricted to players who have played more than 1000 minutes in the 2018-19 campaign.
In case you didn't know...
Messi had another stellar individual season, racking up 51 goals across all competitions for Barcelona, securing a record-equalling sixth Pichichi award as La Liga's top scorer. He led the Blaugrana to their eighth La Liga title in the past 11 seasons, with a sensational tally of 36 league goals and 13 assists.
The Barcelona captain, however, failed to make it count in the business-end of the Champions League as the Blaugrana went down 4-0 to Liverpool at Anfield, letting go of a handsome 3-0 first leg advantage, to get knocked out from the semi-finals. Messi again failed to inspire Barcelona to a domestic double as they were beaten 2-1 by Valencia in last weekend's Copa del Rey final.
The heart of the matter
According to stats, Celta Vigo's Algerian winger Sofiane Boufal leads the pack with 6.2 successful dribbles per 90 minutes. Rennes and former Paris Saint-Germain player Hatem Ben Arfa is in the second spot with 5.1 successful dribbles per 90 minutes, while Sassuolo's French winger Jeremie Boga is ranked third with the same numbers, with his contribution of three goals and one assist paling in comparison to Ben Arfa's seven goals and two assists. PSG star man Neymar and Real Sociedad's Adnan Januzaj are ranked fourth and fifth respectively, with both completing 4.7 successful dribbles per 90 minutes, while Messi occupies the sixth position with an average of 4.5 successful dribbles per 90 minutes. Juventus star Ronaldo didn't make it to the top 10 in the list.
What's next?
Messi has joined the Argentina national team in Brazil for June's Copa America tournament. Argentina are drawn in Group B for along with Colombia, Paraguay and 2019 Asian Cup champions Qatar.
