Whilst Leo Messi may have missed out on a place on the podium at last week's Ballon d'Or ceremony, his performance against Espanyol on Saturday has plenty of people asking why.
The Argentine star produced two inch-perfect free-kicks at the RCDE Stadium to help his side to a comfortable 4-0 win, with Messi scoring two free-kicks in a single LaLiga game for the first time in his career.
The strikes took Messi's tally of free-kick goals since 2014 to 19, more than any club in Europe's top five leagues during the same time period.
The closest competitor to Messi's tally is Italian champion Juventus, who have found the net 18 times from set-pieces in the last four years.
Third place on the free-kick goals podium is shared by Lyon, Roma and Real Madrid, who have all scored 14 over the period specified, one more than Bayern Munich.
Six of Europe's historic heavyweights find themselves even further back, with Monaco, PSG and Sampdoria all having scored 12, with Chelsea, Liverpool and AC Milan a goal further behind on 11.
Given the way he twice left Diego Lopez clutching at thin air, few would argue with the suggestion that Messi is the best free-kick taker in world football right now, but given this statistic there really is no argument to the contrary that carries any weight.
December 8, 2018