Lionel Messi is the kind of player that just his name brings a smile to anyone's face. Messi is synonymous with greatness and success. Oliver Holt of the Daily Mail perfectly described the little man by saying,
"He is Nureyev. He is Olivier. He is Rostropovich. He is Picasso. He is Sinatra"
The Argentine maestro is everything that is good in this big bad world. He is an art which can be just marvelled upon.
2016 was the year which proved that the 29-year-old was human like any of us where the unnecessary pressure from his homeland forced him to retire from national duty after Argentina's loss to Chile in the Copa America final. He came back to the fore few months back to help his side qualify for the next World Cup but there is now a blot in Messi's career now as he failed to handle the expectations of an entire nation.
After parting ways with Ballon d'Or, the award which from now on will not be considered as the basis of highest individual award, FIFA hosted its annual awards in Zurich. The main attraction of these awards was the best player of the year honour. As always, Messi and Ronaldo were the frontrunners for the award but at the end, the Portuguese was adjudged as the FIFA best player of 2016.
Ronaldo won the Champions League with Real along with winning the Club World Cup in Japan towards the end of the calendar year. His most important achievement was winning the Euros with Portugal against all odds as his leadership qualities came to the fore in his homeland securing their first ever major trophy.
Ronaldo's impact on his teams and his trophy haul made him won the coveted individual gong but Messi would feel hard done by. There were sections of the world which thought Messi deserved the award more and there were some valid reasons for the same.
By his standards, Messi had a quiet 2016 which was marred by injuries and the player went out of form for a while. Despite all that, the 29-year-old ended the last calendar year as the highest goal scorer with 59 goals combined with 36 assists. Along with being the top scorer, he was far more influential than his closest competitor, Cristiano Ronaldo as he made an impact for his side dropping deep and also being far more selfless than the Portuguese.
Messi created a host of records in 2016 and, not surprisingly, he has always been associated with breaking records throughout his entire career at Nou Camp. It will not be long till he breaks the goalscoring records of Jimmy Greaves and Gerd Muller.
Also Read: Video: Football - Most emotional moments in 2016
Messi broke Gabriel Batistuta’s national record of 54 goals in official international matches during the Copa America. He currently heads the list with 56 goals from 113 appearances. The Argentine also became the first player to score six hat tricks in UEFA Champions League and currently leads the charts with 7 hat-tricks.
He scored his 500th goal and also scored his 300th league goal on the way. The 29-year-old also had a hand in the club's historic 10,000th goal against Valencia, a match in which he scored a hattrick.
Whenever the talk of Messi's contribution comes up, Sid Lowe of Guardian perfectly sums it up.
“Superb throughout 2016, His range of passing all over the pitch, always better than anyone else’s but hidden behind the goals, the dribbles and the assists, is getting talked about at last. There may never have been a player who can do much as him; the best No10, 7, 8, 11 and 4 all wrapped in one.”
One thing that should be kept in mind is, that at the end, this was an individual award and Messi clearly had an upper hand on Ronaldo. Like the Real Madrid stalwart, Messi was the main man behind Argentina’s run to the Copa America final, where they failed at the final hurdle.
For club games, Messi was the best Champions League player from the group stage whereas Ronaldo went absent in the grand finale but took the limelight by scoring the winning spot kick.
We are talking about a player who is considered as the best player ever to grace the football field. His feints and turns can make people believe themselves lucky to see Lionel Messi play in front of their eyes. Football was meant to spread joy to the masses and there's not a single player who has done enough for the game than the Barcelona forward.
Again to quote the great Oliver Holt to end this piece, one line best defines the competition between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
"Ronaldo is athleticism. Messi is fantasy. Ronaldo is the Terminator. But he is not Messi."
