FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta believes Lionel Messi has firmly establishing himself as the best ever. “Messi has once again shown that he is a wonderful player and that he is, without doubt, the leader of Barcelona.”

Messi, who is also the reigning FIFA World Player of the Year, has scored 25 goals in La Liga this season and is well on course to take the Pichichi trophy for the league’s top goalscorer, as well as the Europe-wide equivalent, the Golden Shoe, in which he currently trails Wayne Rooney by a solitary strike.

“He is the best player in the world and the best in the history of football. Along with (Johan) Cruyff and (Diego) Maradona he is the best player we have seen at Barça,” Laporta said.

SUPER MESSI

He already is the best in history

He is better than legends such as Maradona, Cruyff or Pele.

He is only 22 and he is on his way to break each and every record with Barça.

Interview with Messi’s father: “We came here to fulfill a dream and that is what Leo is doing“

He is the first blaugrana player to score two hat trick in a row.

Laporta changes his support to another candidate. The president supports Jaume Ferrer as a continuist candidate instead of Alfons Godall, who is retiring.

SUPERIOR BEING

Messi has won more titles than the greatest legends in his six first years playing in the elite.

His goal-scoring strike drives him straight to the top of the European goal scorers.

Messi at his age has already achieved 13 titles.

Pele, in his first seasons, achieved 6.

Cruyff, when he was 23, 6.

Di Stéfano, when he was 24, had 4 titles.

Maradona, when he was 21, just had 2 titles.

Arsenal midfielder and Spanish international Cesc Fabregas (22) has been a hot topic since Friday’s draw pitched Arsène Wenger’s side against the Champions League holders Barcelona in this season’s Quarter-Final.

At a post-match press conference after his side won their game again West Ham and moved second in the Premier League, the Spaniard was not willing to make any form of mental leap forward. When asked about his sides much awaited clash against Barca, Cesc replied:

“At the moment we have won nothing,” he said. “In the League there are seven games and, in the Champions League, we have two crucial games coming up.”

“But we are not thinking about being champions right now. We are only thinking about Birmingham next Saturday. There is a lot of time to think about Barcelona. Our first priority is Birmingham and that is the sign of champions, taking things game-by-game.”

The players were back in training on Monday morning to prepare Wednesday’s league match against Osasuna. However, defender Gerard Piqué has some discomfort in his left knee and exercised apart from the main group.

The squad reported for training at 11 am following on from the weekend’s win away to Zaragoza (2-4). This was the first of three training sessions planned ahead of Wednesday evening’s clash against Osasuna in the Camp Nou.

Light session

As usual, the players who took part in the victory against Zaragoza enjoyed a somewhat lighter session than the rest of their team-mates. Guardiola also included seven youngsters from the reserve squad in the session: Gai, Edu Oriol, Ilie, Jonathan, Víctor Vázquez, Luque and Masip.

Milito trains normally

Piqué and Milito, who were both taken off during the Zaragoza match due to injury, had a number of medical checks on Monday morning. However, Milito (calves) – who was replaced by Márquez – was able to take full part in the training session.

Specific exercises for Piqué

In contrast, Piqué continues to suffer from discomfort in his left knee and received specific treatment while training separately from the rest of the squad. Fans will remember that he was replaced in the 68th minute of the match by Puyol.

Tuesday at 11 am

The next training session will be at 11 am on Tuesday. After training, manager Josep Guardiola will hold a final press conference ahead of the match against Osasuna.

Madrid native Carlos Velasco Carballo has been tipped to oversee Wednesday’s clash between FC Barcelona and Osasuna at the Camp Nou. Lovers of the beautiful game will be hoping that Carballo will leave his hometown allegiance behind him and deliver an impartial performance on the pitch.

Carballo, 38, seems to have avoided some of the controversy that comes with his night job. An engineer by day, he began his Primera career in 2004, with the match between Barcelona and Sevilla [a 2-0 Barcelona victory!]. He moved more seriously into international matches as a FIFA referee in 2010. He has refreed group stage matches in the UEFA Europa League and will referee in the Champions League next season.

Barcelona will have no complaints about Carballo’s performance in recent seasons. He refereed Liga victories over Xerez and Almeria earlier in this campaign, in addition to to our 3-0 home victory over Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish Supercopa back in August. In the 13 matches he has arbitrated so far this season, Carballo has issued 69 yellow and 5 red cards.

    - Сальва Баллеста - единственный игрок, который оформил два хет-трика подряд в Примере (сезон 1999-00). Вторым стал Лео Месси, который также раньше никогда не забивал подряд в 5 матчах.

    - Месси с 25-ю голами находится на расстоянии одного мяча от Руни, который, правда, сыграл больше на 4 матча.

    - То, что аргентинец – футбольный гений. Он продемонстрировал в своих обводках. Из 14 успешно закончились 12.

    - “Барса” в этом сезоне забила 100 голов в официальных матчах. Они были забиты в 44-х матчах и распределились следующим образом: 68 в Примере, 12 в Лиге Чемпионов, 9 в Кубке Короля, 5 на Клубном Мундиале, 5 в Суперкубке Испании и 1 в Суперкубке Европы.

    - На “Ла-Ромареде” снова сыграл Кейта, который получил травму 14 февраля и все это время не мог помочь команде.

    - Самыми активными в этом поединке были латерали Максвелл и Алвеш.

    - Третий раз за сезон Чави и Иниеста не вышли в основе.

    - Алвеш и Милито сделали больше всех отборов.

    - Ибрагимович и Месси нанесли соответственно 13 и 19 ударов по воротам.