Lionel Messi breaking the all-time La Liga goalscoring record highlighted one of the silliest squabbles in Spanish football: Marca v the rest. You can't take this away from him...
Monday 24 November 2014 15:19, UK
What was a life-affirming, hats into the air achievement for Lionel Messi on Saturday night was also a sad reminder of the immensely childish, infantile media environment in which the Argentinean has grown up.
Only in bi-polarised Spain can a footballer boast different goal tallies depending on which side of the political divide upon which he or she happens to be playing.
"253!" was the celebratory headline from pretty much every outlet in reaction to the tally Leo Messi reached this weekend in equalling, and then pulling away from, the league total of 251 of Telmo Zarra, a record held for the past 59 years. The lonely exception was the very Real Madrid, 'Marca', which blasted "252!" on Sunday's front cover in celebration of Messi's achievement.
Still, the paper could have looked even more ridiculous than it did already had the legendary Barça man not scored a third against Sevilla. According to the paper, Messi would only have been level with the former Athletic Bilbao great on Sunday morning.
The whole messy Messi issue dates back to 2012 when Marca decided to take away a strike from the Barcelona forward against Athletic Bilbao, declaring it to be an own goal to defender Fernando Amorebieta. It would be fair to say that the same decision would not have been taken against Cristiano Ronaldo.
Indeed, Marca once caused all sorts of confusion in 2011 in the top scorer stakes when awarding a strike given by the referee and the league to Pepe to Ronaldo instead, after a huge free-kick deflection. The reason for both decisions, cynics would protest quite correctly, was that the paper will do anything it possibly can to inflate Ronaldo's figures and bring down Messi's.
Lunacy returned a year later when Messi was pursuing Gerd Müller's record for the number of goals in a calendar year, with Marca constantly one strike behind everyone else. In order to avoid huge embarrassment and international ridicule, the paper went back into its archives and arbitrarily took away a goal from the German to balance matters out.
Normally, this would not matter a jot and the paper could live in whatever alternate dimension it chooses. The trouble in Spain is that Marca runs the official "Pichichi" trophy, seen as the official tally for the top scorer in La Liga, which does carry some weight.
Still, matters could have been an awful lot worse for the Madridista Marca, as Messi beat the record in the Camp Nou against Sevilla and not at the Santiago Bernabéu. That was a very real fear and caused genuine debates on whether the Clásico should be stopped for an official homage, cup of tea and prize-giving ceremony. Messi could perhaps be given book tokens as reward.
Instead, Messi went into a mini-slump and slouched, going three league matches without scoring. That was shrugged off on Saturday night to put a silver lining on a cloudy week for Barça which saw more discussions over Messi's happiness levels and future at the camp Nou.
Luckily for the home side, Sevilla were ready and willing to roll over, making it 14 matches without victory against Barcelona for coach Unai Emery. "Barça needed a night like that," was the sigh of relief from Josep Pallàs, writing in 'Sport'.
The goals from Messi saw him at his brilliant best. His first was a lovely free-kick and the second saw him slide in to put away a flowing move with Neymar. The third was a true peach, with the Argentinean tucking away the ball after a trademark parallel run across the edge of the box.
The goals were scored in 27 of the 33 stadiums in which Messi has played in La Liga, against 31 of the 34 teams he has faced since making his debut in October 2004. The two biggest victims were Osasuna and Atlético Madrid, against whom the forward has scored 17 goals each.
So how many more strikes Messi is going to rack up in his football life in La Liga? He's currently 27, and whilst not in decline himself is playing in a team that simply isn't at the level of Pep Guardiola's outfit, which provided the perfect foil for Messi. That said, a hundred more league goals would not be an impossible figure over the next four or five years. No matter what Messi manages, in the record books of Marca, he will always be one goal less great than his living legend truly is.
