Ball: Lionel Messi inspires Barca, Ronaldo's mind-blowing record

Pique himself wasn’t playing in Barcelona’s excellent and somewhat surprising win 2-1 at Atlético Madrid, surprising in the sense that if the Catalans had stumbled, nobody would have been particularly shocked.  Atlético have earned sufficient spurs in the last two seasons to be feared as a serious rival, and their own start had been impressive enough, with a thumping 3-0 win away at Sevilla a fortnight ago.  The fact that the game occurred so early in the season was always going to be an inconvenient indicator for one of the teams, and so it proved as Atlético rather meekly failed to hang onto a 1-0 lead, earned courtesy of old rocker Fernando Torres beating Jordi Alba in a sprint – but that was about the only positive note for Simeone’s men, out-thought and out-classed by visitors who had allowed themselves the luxury of leaving Leo Messi on the bench.  

The game said more about Atlético than Barcelona, largely because the hosts seemed to be suffering from an inferiority complex not apparent in their previous two seasons. Once Neymar had equalised and taken the wind out of the Calderón sails, it was only a matter of time before Barcelona scored again. Messi’s goal was another work of art, all the more impressive because he conjured it up only 15 minutes after coming off the bench to replace Ivan Rakitic. Messi last experienced the bench 39 matches ago, during the doom-laden expedition up to San Sebastián to play Real Sociedad. Since then he’s played 39 complete games, only missing the cup return match at Elche. Luis Enrique decided not to start him due to the fact that he’d been fulfilling paternal duties in the week (his second child was born last Friday). Messi now has two sons, and is rumoured to want at least nine more. 

Messi seems to like playing against Atlético Madrid (not many footballers do). It’s a curious fact, given the enormous baggage of the Argentine’s scoring record, that Atlético are statistically his prime La Liga victims. He’s now scored 20 goals against them.  Following a similar theme, Cristiano Ronaldo likes to play against Espanyol, especially in the newish Cornellà stadium.  His hat-trick there last season means that he’s now scored eight there in a couple of visits.  His five goals on Saturday afternoon were also his second ‘manita’ (little hand) of 2015, and of his career, Granada having been the previous victim. 

The five goals in the 6-0 pummelling (Karim Benzema scored the other – assisted by Ronaldo) arrived on the slumping crest of an eight-game drought, an event which therefore invites all manner of metaphors.  There’s the old one about waiting ages for a bus, and then five come along all at once, but I prefer the idea of Ronaldo as some sort of goal-junkie, becoming more and more desperate as the weeks ticked by, unable to ‘score’, to get his fix.  When the goals finally arrived, you could see him undergo an immediate physical and mental transformation.  It was both awe-inspiring and slightly disturbing, as if nothing else mattered to him. 

Whether anything else matters or not to CR7, his record is now fairly mind-blowing.  The weekend’s picnic took him to 231 league goals in 203 games, an astonishing average which means that he has passed Raúl’s iconic tally of 228.  This makes him the top scorer for Real Madrid, in the league at least, for all time. With regard to all competitions, he has 319, which puts him only four behind Raúl’s all-time record of 323.  Other teams’ followers may dispute this, but Real Madrid’s major role in the theatre of Spanish football means that this is no ordinary data. 

RECORD: Cristiano Ronaldo overtakes Raúl to become Real Madrid’s all time La Liga record scorer with 229 goals. pic.twitter.com/WjkFI9ya3K

— Squawka Football (@Squawka) September 12, 2015

Barring sudden capture by aliens, Ronaldo will soon be there at the summit of the club’s records. Given the players who have walked the corridors of the club’s history, this is no mean feat. However, the truly extraordinary aspect of this six-and-a-bit season goal fest is the speed at which it has been achieved. Even the most passionate of Cristiano haters cannot fail to doff their hats at this fact.  Raúl – arguably the most loved Madrid player of all time (by Madrid supporters), took 347 games more than Ronaldo to achieve these figures.  The difference is inexplicable, so I won’t try to explain it.  

And yet, and yet….perhaps because of who he is, of the image he projects, of the niggling perception that he is a great goal-scorer as opposed to a great player – and the feeling that when the chips are down, he becomes a poor team-player – he may never thus achieve the same status as Raúl, however many records he continues to pummel.  It seems churlish to keep questioning a player with such an astonishing record of almost 1.14 goals per game, but that’s just the way it is. Some things will never change. 

Barcelona too, with their glut of trophies since Ronaldo arrived in La Liga in 2009, have also contributed to this shaping of the Cristiano image – as a player who continues to score goals as if they were going out of fashion, but who has still failed to bring his club the amount of trophies that those goals should have ensured, perhaps in some other space-time continuum. If Catalunya ever does achieve independence, and Barcelona revert to playing derbies with Espanyol, Tarragona and Sabadell, Cristiano – by then the greying coach of the Portuguese national team, may wish that political change had come sooner.  Poor Cristiano – a nicer guy than he appears to be – seems destined to go down in history as the greatest goal-addict of all time.  

It may also be sensible not to accord too much importance to the result at Espanyol.  The Catalans have long been known as Real Madrid’s ‘B’ team, partly due to the cultural preferences of their traditional supporter base, but mainly because of their intense dislike of their illustrious city neighbours.  Their defence folded alarmingly, allowing Gareth Bale the freedom of Wales and gifting Luka Modric the time and space to simply orchestrate manoeuvres to his taste.  The effect was devastating, permitting Casemiro to show what he might be able to do, in more trying circumstances, and the interesting Lucas Vasquez (who ironically came of age last season on loan to Espanyol)  to pick up confidence for the season ahead.

Ronaldo is now 30, the age beyond which a player of his characteristics allegedly goes into decline. This rather ageist concept was defied elsewhere by several players this weekend, one of whom has already warranted a mention – Fernando Torres.  Like Messi in reverse, Torres (31) has made a habit of scoring against Barcelona, this latest being his 10th in 14 games against them. Other golden oldies were doing the business too, with Aritz Aduriz (34) and new signing Raúl García (30) scoring for Athletic in their win over Getafe, and Ruben Castro (34) scoring the winner for 10-man Betis against Real Sociedad. 

Betis’ average age was further increased on Saturday night by the return of the prodigal son Joaquín (34), nine years after he left the club of his origins to play for Valencia. After two seasons at Fiorentina he finally decided to come home, and was greeted rapturously by the locals as he turned on some of the old dizzy dribbling stuff against Real Sociedad, before being taken off mid-way through the second half.

10 – Aritz Aduriz has scored ten La Liga goals vs Getafe; more than any other side in the top-flight. Hangman pic.twitter.com/L1fhdTDaQo

— OptaJose (@OptaJose) September 13, 2015

Joaquin, one of that breed of footballers who is a comedian without really knowing it, looked leaner and fitter than in his previous glory days at Betis, but insisted in his press conference last Friday that he’d disliked Italy because of its ‘obsession with diet’.  With a similarly straight face, Joaquin once famously informed a press conference that he was suckled by his mother up to the age of six, and that she had once breast-fed him at half-time during a primary school match. He’s a welcome presence in La Liga, however, representing a dying breed of traditional right wingers – players who always looked as though they were playing on the beach, just enjoying themselves. Joaquin reminds me of Chelsea’s Charlie Cooke, the player I always wanted to be in the school playground. 

Talking of playgrounds, this week sees the outbreak of Champions League hostilities, with a record number of Spanish clubs involved.  Real Madrid host Shakhtar Donetsk, perhaps a trickier game than it looks, and Barcelona travel to Roma the following night.  Atlético visit Galatasaray – a tough opener for them, and Valencia host Andre Villas-Boas’ Zenit, the former fresh from a 1-0 victory at Sporting over the weekend.  Last but not least, a faltering Sevilla host Borussia Mönchengladbach in their first taste of the competition since 2010.  Pull up the sofa and enjoy.