Barcelona the team struggled to reach the azure heights expected of them, but Barcelona icon and their Argentine talisman was ever so delightful in his continued scoring and assists to mesmerise the fans of the Blaugrana.
Messi 25 goals notched in the La Liga secured for him his seventh Pichichi award and his creative numbers stood out even more. The 33-year-old registered 21 assists in the league, the most by a player in the history of top-flight Spanish football.
Unquestionably there isn’t a forward on this green earth who can do it all quite like Messi and it’ll be no great surprise to anyone that the Argentine is again the European Player of the Season.
Statistics website WhoScored have handed Messi an overall rating for 2019/20 of 8.71, putting him comfortably ahead of Kylian Mbappe (8.14) in second place. Robert Lewandowski (8.13), Kevin De Bruyne (7.97) and Cristiano Ronaldo (7.82) make up the rest of the top five.
Amazingly, this is the ninth time in 11 seasons that Messi has been crowned by WhoScored as the best player in Europe.
The only other occasions the Argentine maestro was denied of the honor was when his Barcelona teammate Luis Suarez scooped the accolade in 2013/14 following his ridiculously productive season in the Premier League with Liverpool, earning an overall rating of 8.43 in the process, followed by compatriot Neymar in 2016/17 when Messi was actually outdone by the Brazilian during their time together in Catalonia.
In 39 games across La Liga and the Champions League, the Brazilian scored 17 goals and contributed with 19 assists, earning an overall rating of 8.52. Messi finished second in WhoScored’s 2016/17 rankings with a rating of 8.47, with the Argentine scoring 37 goals in just 34 La Liga games that season.
Arch rival Ronaldo has never won the award, which does seem a bit odd given the Portuguese’s exploits in La Liga, Serie A and Champions League over the past decade.
In the 2014/15 season, the 35-year-old Portuguese superstar scored 48 league goals for Real Madrid, but it was still Messi who was named as Europe’s top dog.
Onviously, the diminutive Argentine’s superior passing and dribbling stats, among others, clearly count for a lot!