Here is why Lionel Messi deserved to win the golden ball

The decision to award Lionel Messi the Golden Ball moments after he had lost in a World Cup final was certainly a strange one, but any suggestion that he didn’t deserve to win it is, quite frankly, utterly mental.

Messi was superb, brilliant, incredible… all of the other words, in Brazil at once. Perhaps you hadn’t noticed? Let us show you the ways:

Teams set up their entire defence in order to stop him

It’s easier to do great things when the team you are playing against hasn’t decided to man mark you with all of their players.

Iran did this brilliantly for 90 minutes but all it took was a yard of space against tired legs and this happened:

Yes, James Rodriguez was absolutely superb throughout the tournament but teams didn’t focus almost all of their attention on just him, all of the time. Messi hasn’t had the space that Rodriguez got for his brilliant volley for about eight years, in any competition. He probably gets man marked when he goes to Tesco.

A little known secret about Messi is that there is one way you are guaranteed to stop him, and that is to foul him repeatedly. Messi “suffered” 26 tackles in the tournament, a number bettered only by Alexis Sanchez (34), Neymar (35) and Arjen Robben (31).

The major difference between some of these players (HINT: NEYMAR AND ROBBEN) and the Argentina captain is that he never dives. Not that they do of course. (HINT: THEY DO, A LOT)

Cold, hard, statistics

Through a combination of complicated algorithms and data too complex for a human mind like yours, and coincidentally mine, to understand, Opta and WhoScored ranked Lionel Messi as the best player in the tournament.

Fifa’s weird review panel may have Sepp Blatter questioning their selection methods, but according to the stats that matter, Messi outperformed everyone else. On average. That whole Adidas sponsoring the tournament thing is just a side issue.

Let’s investigate further:

He was two goals away from winning the Golden Boot

Only James Rodriguez (6) and Thomas Muller (5) scored more, with Muller playing in a team that scored seven in one game. Argentina only scored eight in the entire tournament.

He completed more dribbles per game than any other player

Messi has an averaged 6.6 successful dribbles per game, beating closest rival Alexis Sanchez who finished on 5.5. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t pass:

Non-selfishness

Despite having dribbled with the ball the most, Messi also put the most amount of balls into the box, with his FIFA “deliveries into penalty area” (which is a fancier way of saying chances created) statistic showing that he did that 26 times during the World Cup – more than any other player. His closest rival is Arjen Robben, who did that 19 times.

This is fewer times.

He is better than we think, because we have become accustomed to his brilliance

If at any point in any Lionel Messi game he hasn’t scored a hat-trick or dribbled around the entire team, some people are disappointed. It is an inevitability, given his towering reputation. You’d also be disappointed if the Loch Ness Monster was just a crocodile and not this incredible dinosaur that shoots cake out of its eyes with lazers, as is my understanding of it.

Since 2004, Lionel Messi has scored 243 goals in 277 La Liga games for Barcelona. In 2012 he scored 91 goals in all competitions in one calendar year. IN ONE YEAR. If this was Football Manager you’d think the game was broken.

La Liga doesn’t really offer the same high standard of crunching defensive challenges that a top league like the Scottish Premiership might, but for balance, he has scored 67 goals in 86 Champions League appearances.

But that’s totally normal because it’s Lionel Messi. It’s just what he does.

He carried Argentina to the final

Messi scored four out of Argentina’s eight goals, and assisted another - without him they wouldn’t have been anywhere near that final.

The assertion that Messi is only so great at Barcelona because he’s surrounded by incredible players like Iniesta, Xavi and Busquets is often made, but is wrong. Barcelona, too, completely depend upon Messi.
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