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Argentina manager Alejandro Sabella has struck fear into the opposition by suggesting that star striker Lionel Messi has still not reached his best and he expects the player to continue improving over the next few years. Barcelona superstar Messi is widely regarded as the best in the world. Even though he recently lost the FIFA Ballon d’Or award to rival Cristiano Ronaldo, it is widely believed to be due to his absence from the team for much of 2013. Messi was injured for most of the first half of the campaign. However, he has been recently back to his imperious best with two back-to-back hat tricks.

The last hat-trick especially came against Real Madrid and it helped Barcelona win 4-3 at the Santiago Bernabeu to reinvigorate their title aspirations. A defeat or even a draw against Carlo Ancelotti’s men would have spelt the end of the title race as far as Barcelona are concerned, but Messi rescued them with his stunning hat-trick. He is expected to be one of the stars at the upcoming World Cup. Messi has a great chance to lift the one title that has been missing from his trophy cabinet – World Cup.

Despite his exploits in recent years, Sabella says that Messi is still yet to reach his peak.

"You always think that it will be hard for him to improve even further, yet he keeps on doing just that. Nobody knows what the limits of an extraordinary player like Messi are,” said the manager. Messi was heavily criticised in the last few years for being unable to replicate form for the national team, but he has finally managed to achieve this with a string of impressive performances for the national team as well. Overall, he has managed just 37 goals in 83 appearances for Argentina.