Whenever you look at Lionel Messi's goalscoring stats over the years, you cannot help but be astounded by his phenomenal year of 2012.
A 25-year old Messi was responsible for the best individual year in the history of football, scoring a staggering 91 goals and registering 29 assists for club and country.
79 of those goals came were scored in a Barcelona shirt, with the remaining 12 coming in international fixtures for Argentina.
Messi broke the previous world record of 85 goals in a calendar year set by Germany and Bayern Munich striker Gerd Müller 40 years prior, doing an absolute madness in just 69 games.
Part of Messi's goal-fest scintillating performance under the lights at the the Nou Camp against Bayer Leverkusen in March 2012.
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Barca destroyed the German outfit 7-1 in the Champions League round of 16 second leg, with the Blaugrana's No.10 and talisman running riot by bagging a ridiculous five goals. Some of the strikes were of a silly standard and saw Messi earn his second 10/10 rating from L'Equipe.
Unsurprisingly, Messi collected a fourth consecutive Ballon d'Or as a result of his monstrous year and well and truly raised the bar for what is needed to be at the top level of football.
And while he's never notched 91 goals again, his numbers have continued to be out of this world. With his tidy brace in the final La Liga game of the season against Eibar, Messi ensured he has scored at least 50 goals in six different campaigns.
There was a time where most forwards would settle for 20-30 goals in a season it was previously viewed as a fine return but Messi has entered a whole new stratosphere.
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It's Messi's world and we're just living in it...
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Football News, FC Barcelona, Football, Messi, Lionel Messi, Ballon d'Or, Argentina, Spanish football, La Liga
