Celebrating the incomparable Lionel Messi

How else to describe Lionel Messi? All the usual superlatives are no longer enough.

Like swimmer Michael Phelps (eight golds at one Olympic Games) and cyclist Lance Armstrong (seven consecutive Tour de France victories), Barcelona’s new all-time leading scorer is setting records that will last an awfully long time, perhaps forever.

The mark Messi shattered on Tuesday night stood for 57 years. It was set by Cesar Rodriguez, who is remembered for his sixth sense of anticipation and ability to score from corners. Cesar notched up his 232 Barcelona goals over 13 seasons, from 1942-1955.

Barcelona legends like Samuel Eto’o, Africa’s most decorated player, or Rivaldo, Brazil’s 1999 world player of the year, or Hristo Stoichkov, the Bulgarian star of Johan Cruyff’s “Dream Team” in the 1990s, also scored by the bucketload for the 113-year-old Catalan football institution that calls itself “More than a club”.

But none of them came within spitting distance of even threatening Rodriguez’s milestone.

Messi dismantled it in just seven years, goal by goal, game by game.

His new record is now 234 goals and counting. Messi’s mark, if it isn’t already, will be unattainable by other mere mortals by time he finishes his career.

Messi is still only 24. Since his first Barcelona goal in 2005, he averages more than 30 per season for the club that nurtured him and earned his loyalty by helping to fund the hormone treatment he needed to correct a childhood growth deficiency and grow tall enough to become the larger-than-life football phenomenon he is today.

At this rate, Messi could surpass 400 Barca goals if he plays for just five more years. Cloud cuckoo land for others. But Messi makes the impossible seem almost banal.

“If he continues like this in the coming years, he will score so many goals that he will never be surpassed,” said Pep Guardiola, Barca’s coach who long ago ran out of new ways to praise his player.

To add to the otherworldly feel of Messi’s latest feat, goal No 233 that eclipsed Cesar was almost a carbon-copy of his first league strike on 1 May, 2005, against Albacete.

That day, coming on as a late substitute for Eto’o, Messi let Ronaldinho’s delicate pass over the defence, bounce once in front of him and then conjured a left-footed lob over goalkeeper Raul Valbuena that put the 17-year-old into Barca’s record books as its youngest scorer of a league goal.

On Tuesday evening, Messi again used his left foot to control Dani Alves’ pass and to chip over Granada goalkeeper Julio Cesar.

That both record-setting goals, scored seven years apart, resembled each other so closely felt like the wheel turning full circle; the first announced the arrival of a prodigy, the second was further confirmation that Messi has become the best player of his era, perhaps of all time.

Guardiola likened Messi to Chicago Bulls great Michael Jordan, because “Jordan dominated his sport and Messi dominates this one.”

But there are other similarities, too. As Jordan was, Messi doesn’t only score, he scores when it really counts.

Jordan had his array of buzzer-beating, game-winning shots, like the one that sank the Utah Jazz in Game 1 of the 1997 NBA Finals.

Messi’s highlight reel includes unforgettable goals like his header that floored Manchester United in the 2009 Champions League final, with a leap worthy of the jumps that earned Jordan the title “His Airness”.

But it also has countless less glamorous efforts that were vital, too, because they kept Barcelona on top – like his record-setting goal No 233 on Tuesday. It pinned back Granada after it had leveled the score at 2-2. From that Messi strike for 3-2, Barca went on to win 5-3.

“That’s why he is the best, because in the difficult moments, in the difficult problems, the rest of the ten teammates, they know he’s there,” Guardiola said. “In that moment, he believes in himself and he resolves our little problems.

“It’s all been said before about Messi. He doesn’t only score goals, he scores great goals; each one is better than the last. We are seeing the very best in action.”

Team-mates added to the praise, with defender Gerard Pique saying: “It’s a pleasure to be in the same generation as him. I believe he’s the best player in the history of the sport. It doesn’t matter where he plays, he always proves that he’s the best.”

With 234 goals and tens of millions of euros to his name, Messi still appears humble, as though he is the lucky and privileged one to be playing for Barcelona, and not the other way around.

Frankly, it’s almost unsettling to be faced with someone about whom nothing bad can be said.

1. Lionel Messi (Argentina) 2004-present 234 goals

2. Cesar Rodriguez (Spain) 1942-1955 232 goals

3. Lazlo Kubala (Hungary) 1950-1961 194 goals

4. Joseph Samitier (Spain) 1919 -1932 176 goals

5. Josep Escola (Spain) 1934-1949 167 goals

6. Paulinho Alcantara (Spain) 1912-1927 142 goals

7. Angel Arocha (Spain) 1926-1933 134 goals

8 Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon) 2004-2009 130 goals

9. Rivaldo (Brazil) 1997-2002 130 goals

10. Mariano Martin (Spain) 1940-1948 124 goals