Lionel Messi Is The Best Dribbler In Europe's Top Five Leagues

Whether it's goalscoring, passing or running with the ball is there anything Lionel Messi isn't the best at? Now we know he's officially the most relentless dribbler in European football.

In his whole club career Emile Heskey scored 164 goals. On Saturday Lionel Messi bagged the 50th hat-trick of his career, helping Barcelona to a 4-2 win against Sevilla, meaning he's scored 150 goals in hat-tricks alone.

Sure Heskey is hardly the benchmark for goalscoring but there's a very good chance that Messi will end his career with more goals scored in trios than another striker did in his whole career, and that's just mad when put like that.

The five time Ballon d'Or winner is once again in line to win the Pichichi Trophy for La Liga's top scorer, something he's done five times previously, including the last two.

Messi has bagged himself 25 goals this season so far with teammate Luis Suarez second on 16 but as usual it's not just his goalscoring that sets the Argentina forward apart.

As well as leading Europe's golden boot table this season he's also Europe's leading dribbler, successfully dribbling the ball once every 19.2 minutes, over 4.5 times a game.

Messi's dribbling stats according to CIES Observatory. Image: PA Images

It shows that if you're a defender up against Barcelona that you're going to have a lot of dribbling to contend with as Ousmane Dembele is also in the top five.

As per the CIES Observatory, Borussia Dortmund's Jadon Sancho just misses out on the top five and successfully dribbles the balls every 24.1 minutes.

However neither man is in the top five when it comes to average successful dribbles. Of the dribbles that Eden Hazard attempts the Chelsea man is successful with 73.4% of them, more than anyone else in Europe's top five with at least 100 dribbles in the last year.

Hazard is the most efficient dribbler in Europe. Image: PA Images

Liverpool fans will be a little gutted to see former player Suso on the list, someone they let go to Milan for free and is now bossing things in Serie A.

Hazard could leave Stamford Bridge in the summer. The Belgian will have just one year left on his current deal and Real Madrid are rumoured to be interested.

That would make the Classico a difficult place for defences on both sides.

Topics: Football News, Eden Hazard, Chelsea, Barcelona, Lionel Messi, Premier Leauge, Champions League, Spanish football, La Liga

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a writer for SPORTbible. He covers all sport from football, formula one, cricket, rugby, tennis, athletics, mma and wrestling. He obviously hates YOUR football team and has no interest in synchronised swimming.

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