Players to Know: #2 Lionel Messi

Forward, Argentina

Here’s a stat for you. In the 2011-12 campaign for Spain’s La Liga, Lionel Messi tallied 50 goals in 36 games for Barcelona; in doing so he outscored 13 of the league’s 20 teams by himself. On March 16 of this year, Messi became FC Barcelona's all-time scoring leader with 371 goals breaking a record that had held since 1927. He was only 26 years old on that day. Messi scores goals in many shapes and sizes, and they come so frequently it's as if he were playing FIFA '14 on easy mode. How is this possible?

Let's start by looking at the (first) goal he scored for Barcelona against Arsenal in a 2011 Champions League game. When Andres Iniesta dinks the ball through the defenders, Messi has a split-second to make a decision, and it appears that he has four options: 1) Shoot the ball on his first touch, 2) Control the ball and then shoot, 3) Try and dribble around the keeper, 4) Not decide quickly enough and get tackled. Messi, though, opts for a fifth option.

If you focus on the crowd's reaction, you'll notice there's an extra octave to their roar, one recognizing the work of genius that's just taken place. In the split-second after the ball was played through to him, Messi saw something that just wasn't there. He conceptualized a path forward that every other player on the field wouldn't have seen. With Messi, this happens with enough regularity that it's not a coincidence, and it's one of the elements that separates him from other players.

Seeing different paths forward is a wasted talent, though, if you can't execute.To score the goal above, Messi takes three touches: the first sets the ball to where he can do multiple things with it (volley, dribble, loft). The second is the most delicate of chips eliminating the keeper and leaving the ball where only Messi can get to it. The first two touches make the third academic. This sublime control is another of the aspects that make Messi's game special. It's as if there's an invisible circle surrounding him, and the ball never leaves this area unless he wants it to. Messi gets to decide what he wants to happen next.

When you combine Messi's creativity and touch with his speed and agility, it becomes unfair for defenders. He can stop on a dime, use his low center of gravity to quickly shift his balance, and he can run away from you while dribbling. Mixed together, he can produce something like this wundergoal vs. Getafe.

This goal was remarkably reminiscent of perhaps the most famous World Cup goal of all-time. Messi's game is also in the same stratosphere as the great Maradona, but his track record with Argentina isn't. Maradona led Argentina to a World Cup title in 1986 and the final in 1990. Messi's two World Cups to date have both ended with disappointing Quarter-final exits, and Messi has scored only one goal in his World Cup appearances. That number doesn't tell the whole story as Messi helped create nearly every one of Argentina's goals in 2010, but Messi will be judged on goals and ultimately results. He knows this.

That's why this World Cup is crucial for Messi. He is 27 years old, and this will be the last World Cup where Messi is in his prime. He will be the focal point for an Argentina attack that is stacked - Gonzalo Higuain, Kun Aguero, Angel Di Maria - and the Argentinians will relish the opportunity to raise the trophy on the home soil of their biggest rivals, Brazil. Doing so would be the missing piece to Messi's Resume, and it would cement him in the pantheon of footballing greats. The world will be watching.

This article is part of the Players to Know series.