Defying Belief

Lionel Messi according to ESPN. 

Sooner or later, we all stop and gaze in wonderment at the marvels of the world. The Great Wall of China. How was that constructed? Stonehenge, Mount Rushmore or the Taj Mahal. How is it possible that mankind managed to create something so jaw-droppingly astonishing?

In soccer terms, so it is with Lionel Andres Messi.

This season, with one rather special match still to come, he has scored 72 times for his club, FC Barcelona, five times for his country and twice in friendly matches.

All those goals, plus 27 assists, meaning that his fingerprints are on more than 100 goals for club and country this term. It is a feat of such magnificence that, for the moment, it's hard to comprehend. The record Messi broke, that of Gerd Muller at Bayern Munich (68 goals), had stood for four decades and those on the list that Muller himself superseded mostly played 30-40 years before that.

Messi's 14 goals in the Champions League this season matched a record set by Jose Altafini with Milan in 1963 -- the Argentine is achieving what no other player has been able to in the modern era while these records lay untouched.

Already, at 24, He is Barcelona's all-time top scorer.

What is most attractive of all is his instinct for the big game. This isn't a predator athlete who inflates his statistics simply by grazing on the weak and the slow.

Thus far Barca has won three trophies this season. The Spanish Supercup against Real Madrid was an absolute epic -- Messi scored three times and created another. The European Supercup against a thuggish Porto side was a brutal test, and Messi scored one and made one. Then, the World Club Cup final was an absolute exhibition of a performance, worthy of applause from all around the planet -- Messi scored two, made two and won man of the match.

This summer he'll turn 25, a significant staging point.

Mature and no longer a kid, maybe, but with at least seven or eight major years still ahead of him, the junction he's reached is an intriguing one.

He's about to work under Tito Vilanova, only the third coach of his reign in the Barcelona senior team. Vilanova is one of the coaches who was in charge of Messi during his formative youth football years and has been instrumental in the flowering of the South American's genius over the past few seasons.

However, the world will be watching, hawkishly, to discover how Vilanova handles what is now an absolute megastar. In how he behaves, reacts, trains, plays and scores, Messi can help that process greatly. Bigger than that: the task ahead for Vilanova and Barcelona to try to overhaul an impressive Real Madrid outfit.

Like the Great Wall, Mount Rushmore, the Taj Mahal or Stonehenge, Leo Messi defies belief.