Hasta El Gol Siempre

I should admit something before I begin: I’d already had a couple of cocktails when in Messi’s honour, I decided to end the evenining with a fernet with Coke (very popular in Argentina, you see) about half an hour before coming back to my hostel to write this, so how coherent the following will be, I’m not sure. But here goes.

I was lucky enough to watch Barcelona for the second time in exactly a week tonight, since they were away to Levante, the second team of Valencia, which is the city my holiday has taken me to this week. Levante were bottom of La Liga going into the match, Barça second, and had just started to click back into the gear of two seasons ago on Wednesday.

Even so, for an away side - any away side - it was a privilege to witness what I’ve just got back from seeing. Lionel Messi set up the first two of Thierry Henry’s three goals (if we can stretch the term ’set up’ to include having a shot which was saved and rebounded to the Frenchman for the first), and scored one brilliant effort of his own as Barça took a 4-0 lead five minutes into the second half before the hosts got a consolation through a penalty, the eventual score a mere 4-1.

The last week in Spain as an (admittedly amateur, for now) expert on Argentine football, has been a pleasure, because the press and people have been unable to shut up about Messi. Having scored that phenomenal volley and high-pressure penalty against Sevilla last weekend, he went on to notch two and set one up in the opening quarter of an hour against Real Zaragoza on Wednesday night as Barça put in such a good show that the following day Catalán daily Sport were drooling over ‘the best performance in 18 months’. On returning from Barça - Sevilla to my hostel in Barcelona almost exactly  a week ago, the receptionist agreed with me when I told him who’d made the difference: ‘Messi es una masa‘ ['Messi's incredibly cool']. Messi, the word in Spain has it, is the best footballer on the planet right now.

A reminder in case it’s slipped your mind, because it did mine at times tonight: Lionel Messi is twenty years old.

Tonight, in the Ciutat de Valencia, there was a buzz in the crowd every time he got the ball - and this despite the fact that he was playing for the opposition. The first time one of Xavi’s marvellous crossfield passes was taken down by him, there was applause all round the stadium in recognition of his two performances in the previous seven days. Midway through the first half he took a ball and steamed round three men in the box before having a near-post shot deflected, almost right in front of where I was sitting. The effortlessness with which he lands defenders on their backsides is simply amazing.

The point of writing this article is simply this: I’ve been watching Messi for Barça on TV for as long as he’s played for them - literally. I saw his goalscoring debut off the bench two-and-a-half years ago from a pub in Manchester, and all I can say now is that however good you think he is on screen, when you get the chance to see him up close in the flesh, he’s simply other-worldly. In big matches - as last weekend’s clash with Sevilla undeniably was - he makes the difference. Against weaker opposition, he adds the sparkle to an already more than impressive team performance. You may be aware that a bit of fuss is currently surrounding Ronaldinho’s repeated exclusion from the squad of Catalunya’s biggest club. I’ve been saying on forums for a while - and it now seems that I’m being proved correct - that Barcelona can afford to leave Ronaldinho out or to let him go altogether as long as they keep hold of La Pulga.

Messi won our poll back in June to find the most impressive Argentine performer in a foreign league. His performances in the last four matches (six goals, three or four assists) alone surely put him beyond reach for this season’s award, barring a horrendous drop in form or hideous injury. At the age of 20, Lionel Messi has the Camp Nou faithful eating from his hand, and the rest at his feet, as possibly the world’s best player. I’ve paid a total of nearly 100 euros to see him play about one-and-a-half matches*. It has honestly felt like an honour. And I’ll say it publicly now: if Argentina fail to win a World Cup during his career, it will be an utter, utter travesty.

Photos of the game to follow as soon as I’m able to find a computer to hook my camera up to, by the way.

Oh, more news from Spain: Andrés D’Alessandro scored for Zaragoza with a free kick as they beat Sevilla 2-0. In Italy, Hernán Crespo and Julio Cruz bagged one each as Inter thrashed Roma 1-4 in the Stadio Olimpico, and yet another world title goes to Argentina following the Under 17 and Under 20 championship wins in recent months: Los Dogos, the Argentine representatives, beat Stonewall, the defending champions from England, in the Gay Football World Cup, which was held in Buenos Aires. The final was played in the stadium of Defensores del Belgrano in front of 2,000 fans, and saw a 1-0 victory for the hosts. The next World Cup will be held next year in London.

* Bizzarely, since I’m in the eurozone, there is no Euro sign on this keyboard.