Messi 50 goals is too much but not enough

Messi 50 goals is too much but was not enough to keep Pep

Saturday journey in the football scene saw two quite unusual events: one, the establishment of a record that may last decades; the other, the farewell of one of the best coaches seen in the sport.

A goodbye hug

Lionel Messi scored another poker of goals to consolidate his position as top scorer, not only in Spain's La Liga but in the entire world, distancing himself from Cristiano Ronaldo and setting an astounding record of 50 goals scored in a domestic season, for a total of 75 in the entire season combining european league competition and domestic cups. This is something that has to be interpreted carefully and wisefully, because it's not too often that we are able to witness an event of this magnitude. Let's put things in perspective.

Just in Spain, Barcelona plays a campaign that includes 38 matches. If any player scores over that number of games, it basically means they scored one or more goals in average per game. Currently at 50 and with one more match to go, Messi stands at 1.1 goals per match. Considering all the legendary forwards and strikers that have played in La Liga, Messi's achievement outclasses huge names: Ronaldo -the original-, Hugo Sanchez, Eto'o, Cristiano Ronaldo, Makaay, Romario, all of them top scorers in La Liga who earned that award scoring in ranges of 25 to 35 goals, which is something "do-able" in La Liga (or for that matter in any other Football league).

Cristiano also hammer goal after goal, but at least he won La Liga!

The irony of the record is that Barcelona -who have been known for the past years as the essence of a collective team- failed to clinch the title. More over, Barca couldn't capitalize the only chance they had to win when they lost to arch-rivals and eventual champions Real Madrid in their own home and with Messi being unable to score. There is no doubt in my mind that Messi would trade the record and even all of those goals, with having scored against Madrid and have Barca win La Liga. That is the beauty and the irony of football and the duality that most cooperative sports face: the fact that you may have the best player, doesn't mean that you'll have the winning team. It kind of reminded me of Ernie Banks, the powerful shortstop of Chicago Cubs who hit over 500 Home Runs and never got the chance to play in a World Series, which brings me to the next point: Is Barcelona up to be dismantled?

Ernie Banks. A superb player back in the day who couldn't win many titles for his team.

Messi choking a penalty against Chelsea FC in the semifinals of the Champions and not playing up to his game against Real Madrid probably cost Barcelona the two most important trophies of the season. This resulted in Pep Guardiola's almost immediate resignation, drained by the pressure of living up to win everything as he had been doing in the previous three seasons. On Saturday, Guardiola was given a very emotive goodbye ceremony at Camp Nou -one that will be remembered for many years-.

The Barcelona Farewell to Guardiola, It was... awkward...

So the end of an era has been unveiled for Barcelona and the huge question marks will now rise: Will the team hold together without Pep? Will the players remain with the club? Will Barcelona keep playing the same way? More importantly, will they win titles again? In my mind, any answer that is thrown out right now is mere speculation. Let's just allow time to make its course and see how the players confront the new season that begins next September.

The bottom line is that lots of players and teams will be seeking revenge.