Barcelona manager Luis Enrique says that Lionel Messi will probably leave a record that will never be broken in Spanish football.
The 27-year-old became the all-time highest goalscorer in the Spanish league after a hat-trick against Sevilla in the 5-1 victory. Telmo Zarra's record of 251 goals has stood since 1955, but Messi has now gone past the mark and has scored 253.
Since Messi appears to have many more years ahead of him, Luis Enrique is backing him to create a record that will probably never be broken. The closest to Messi who is still playing is Cristiano Ronaldo, but he is at a distant 197.
Further, Ronaldo is two more years older than Messi and is likely to finish his playing career earlier than the Argentine. Messi has set numerous records during stellar Barcelona career. He is the first player to win four FIFA Ballon d’Or awards, while he is also the all-time highest goalscorer in Barcelona’s history with more than 350 to his name.
The little Argentine came to prominence when he scored his first goal and celebrated it with Ronaldinho many years ago. He has since come along with and even scored 68 goals in one single campaign. He also holds the record for scoring the most number of goals in a calendar year – 91.
"He's a unique player - there'll never be anyone like him and we're lucky to enjoy his presence here.I think he will leave the record unreachable for anyone else. Zarra beat it in an age when there were more forwards than defenders," said Enrique.
It would have been very different had Arsene Wenger managed to sign him when he was only a teenager. "We wanted to take Fabregas, Messi and Pique. It worked only for Fabregas. It was not completely down to a flat in the end. It was down to the fact that Messi was comfortable at Barcelona," said Wenger.
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