Messi, the expert of all experts

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The Barcelona captain’s stats are off the scale

Lionel Messi’s football should be defined as a work of art. Apart from his incredible vision, excellent reading of the game, creativity and mental speed to perfectly coordinate his leg-eye movements, La Pulga has become an absolute specialist when it comes to free-kicks.

Whenever a foul is given outside the box, and the Argentina international steps up to take it, the world stops to witness him bend the ball over, under or in between the wall with such elegance until it finds the back of the net. And based on his free-kick stats, it makes sense why everyone believes free-kicks are just a synonym to goals when it comes to Messi.

In the last eight seasons in Europe’s five major top divisions:

29 Lionel Messi

27 Juventus

23 Real Madrid

21 Roma

21 Lyon

20 PSG

The creative playmaker is not compared to other players, but rather to collective units, teams, because he is just that good. Some more stats to blow your mind: Messi is the first player to score a hat-trick of set pieces since... Lionel Messi’s performance against Espanyol on 5 May 2012 (two penalties and one free-kick). He dominates the world of free-kicks, in fact Barcelona’s number 10 leads in terms of percentage success in LaLiga in the last 25 years:

33 Messi (9.51%)

19 Cristiano Ronaldo (6.13%)

16 Roberto Carlos (4.19%)

15 Ronaldinho (7.32%)

The most outrageous of all of this, is the fact that Messi is not just an expert at free-kicks, but an expert in all aspects of the game. A living football legend that the world has the honor of enjoying every single weekend.

Source: barcablaugranes.com