Before the Mallorca game Guardiola said: “Messi knows very well what we all think, all of the coaching staff, the people that look after him, and the other players,
“We are all delighted with what he does, has done and will do. And of course nothing that we have done would have been possible without him.
“He is a different kind of player, his stats make him different and he lets you win games at all levels. There is never a game in which he doesn’t generate chances. I don’t think there has ever been a player in history that can do what he manages to do every three days. People buy tickets just to see him play and he is doing something unique.
“To find a player that has managed to be so consistent for four years, who is so fit, who fights so hard as him, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Perhaps I’m too young,” he concluded, “but I never played with anybody like him and I have never coached a player like that either. He is a better player than anybody else; he has a gift.”
Few thought that he would beat last season’s total of 53 goals for Barca – a club record for a single season –
22 goals from just 17 matches.
Strike rate of 1.29 goals per game.
He played 55 matches last season.