La Liga Chief Credits Lionel Messi as the League’s Biggest Asset

Messi to get an award named after him

With Messi nearing the 400 goal-mark in La Liga, the league’s president Javier Tebas has proclaimed the Barcelona man as the very best the league has ever had, per providers of internet betting in Argentina. In honour of his achievements in La Liga, Tebas intends to create a trophy in his name in the near future. Tebas commented:

“It would depend on Leo Messi but I’d love to have a La Liga award in his name… If he finishes his career in Spain, or most of it, I don’t believe anyone has contributed more to the competition.”

When asked about Cristiano Ronaldo’s surprising move to Serie A’s Juventus from Real Madrid last summer, the president of La Liga acknowledged the Portuguese man’s relevance in the football world. Although, in all fairness, La Liga will miss him, considering that he complemented Messi well as his biggest rival.

“Yes, the fact Cristiano Ronaldo has gone to Serie A means he’s even more important.”

The Spanish league has also previously expressed an interest about staging one official La Liga match in the USA, with Miami being touted as the potential location of a clash between Messi’s Barcelona and Girona. And now Tebas has confirmed that match could actually occur sometime after the new year.

“Our objective, of course, is that the match is played outside of Spain,” La Liga president said. “Our objective is that it’ll be played on the 26th January. I believe we have the right to do that and we’ll fight for it until the end.”

Achievements just keep on building for the Argentine

Messi is La Liga’s all-time top goalscorer with his record standing at 392 goals in 428 appearances which equals a ratio of 0.92 striker per game. The only man that has a better ratio is his former La Liga nemesis Cristiano Ronaldo, who has averaged 1.07 goals per match during his nine-year stay with Real Madrid, hitting the back of the net 311 times in only 292 appearances.

With the diminutive Argentine set to turn 32 years of age in June next year, we can easily expect him to play for Barcelona for a few more seasons. According to online sportsbooks in Spain, he’s likely to surpass 500 La Liga goals and perhaps even come close to 600 before his decides to retire from the Nou Camp side and head to Argentina to play for his boyhood club Newell’s Old Boys.

Messi’s records in La Liga are truly astounding, but it must be noted that he turned into a serious attacker that can score 50+ goals per season just around the time that Ronaldo joined Real Madrid from Manchester United in the summer of 2009.

Their rivalry fuelled the media to focus on the pair and the gladiatorial-like battle for every goal record, trophy and personal acknowledgement. Viewership numbers for La Liga soared due to the media exposure that made the ‘Messi vs Ronaldo’ saga into a spectacle of its own. Were it not for Ronaldo’s presence in La Liga, it’s difficult to argue the league would have reached the popularity levels that it enjoys today.