Lionel Messi: Viral video makes key point about Barcelona icon's 91-goal year | OneFootball

Lionel Messi’s 2012 was an absolute joke.

When we recently looked at the annual top goalscorer of male players based in one of Europe’s top five leagues in the 21st century, the second-highest tallies came from Cristiano Ronaldo in 2013 and Robert Lewandowski in 2021.

However, their stunning 12-month plunders of 69 goals apiece still pale in comparison when up against the grandaddy of calendar years in elite men’s football: Messi‘s extraordinary 2012.

Why was Messi’s 2012 so special?

Bear in mind for a second that those silver-medal finishes of 69 goals still find themselves a mind-blowing 22 strikes shy of the 91 times that Messi found the back of the net back in 2012.

In other words, the distance by which Messi holds the record is so vast, so monumental that it’s how many goals a lot of top-class strikers would score in their greatest ever season.

What we’re trying to say here is that 2012 Messi isn’t just the most dizzying peak we’ve seen from a male footballer this century, but that it’s not even close.

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At what age did Messi join Barcelona?

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And the crazy thing is that Messi still managed to find time in amongst those 91 jaw-dropping goals that overthrew Gerd Muller’s world record to achieve other remarkable things too.

2012 might have marked the zenith of Messi’s goalscoring ability with his 91 strikes coming in just 69 games, but it also saw him channel his mouth-watering penchant for playmaking gold.

Long before Messi pivoted further and further towards an assists-based game, the Argentinian magician was still pulling the strings for Barcelona alongside his own superhuman goalscoring.

What point does the viral video make about Messi’s 2012?

And that’s exactly what has been highlighted in a fantastic montage shared by Twitter user @NoloFCB this week, which has amassed more than 7,000 retweets, 39,000 ‘likes’ and one million views at the time of writing.

Captioned: “Messi was really doing all of this while scoring 91 goals in a year,” it shows that the dizzying peak of the great man’s career truly was more than just that top-line goal statistic.

It’s not a perfect video – the first clip is taken from 2011, after all – but it nevertheless underpins that Messi’s playmaking was still top notch throughout the goalscoring peak of his career.

So just in case you’re in any need of a reminder that 2012 Messi was one of the most astonishing things that the world of sport has ever seen, then be sure to check out the compilation below:

How did football fans react?

Kids these days will never understand.

Alongside the head-spinning 91 goals that Messi netted across 2012, he also laid on 22 assists for his Barcelona and Argentina teammates, which is roughly a rate of one every three games.

It’s also a testament to Messi’s slick creativity that Alexis Sanchez, Cesc Fabregas, Xavi and Pedro all hit double figures for goals playing alongside the Ballon d’Or winner in the 2011/12 season.

So although the history books will largely remember Messi’s prime for his goals, lest we forget that the true magic of the great man himself lies in the fact that he provides much more than that.