Lionel Messi Fan Club: Messi Hat Trick Lifts Barcelona

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Messi Hat Trick Lifts Barcelona

MADRID — Lionel Messi scored three goals to move past 100 for his Spanish league career and lead Barcelona to a record 8-0 rout at Almeria, and Cristiano Ronaldo also had a hat trick to increase his league-leading total to 14 goals as Real Madrid won 5-1 at home against Athletic Bilbao.

The top scorers will meet Nov. 29 when Barcelona plays host to the league-leading Real.

Messi scored in the 17th, 37th and 67th minutes in the match Saturday, giving him 13 league goals this season and raising his career total to 101 in 154 league games. The 23-year-old became only the fourth Barcelona player to pass the century mark.

Messi, the reigning FIFA player of the year, has scored in Barcelona’s last eight games.

Barcelona matched the Spanish league’s largest road victory margin, when it beat Las Palmas 8-0 in 1959. It was the 18th-place Almeria’s largest margin of defeat, topping a 6-0 loss at Barcelona, and coach Juan Manuel Lillo was fired after the game.

Ronaldo scored in the 30th minute, connected on a swerving free kick in the 62nd and converted a penalty kick in second-half injury time for Real Madrid. Gonzalo Higuaín and Sergio Ramos also scored for Real, which has 32 points, one more than Barcelona.

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Lionel Andrés Messi

Lionel Andrés Messi (Spanish pronunciation: [ljo'nel an'd'es 'mesi]; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine footballer who currently plays for La Liga's Barcelona and the Argentine national team. Messi is considered to be one of the best football players of his generation, having received several Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations by the age of 21. His playing style and ability have drawn comparisons to football legend Diego Maradona, who himself declared Messi his "successor".
Messi began playing football at a young age and his potential was quickly identified by Barcelona. He left Rosario-based Newell's Old Boys's youth team in 2000 and moved with his family to Europe, as Barcelona offered treatment for his growth hormone deficiency. Making his debut in the 2004–05 season, he broke the La Liga record for the youngest footballer to play a league game, and also the youngest to score a league goal. Major honours soon followed as Barcelona won La Liga in Messi's debut season, and won a double of the league and UEFA Champions League in 2006. His breakthrough season was in 2006–07: he became a first team regular, scoring a hat-trick in El Clásico and finishing with 14 goals in 26 league games. Perhaps his most successful season was the 2008–09 season, in which Messi scored 38 goals to play an integral part in a treble winning campaign.
Messi was the top scorer with six goals, including two in the final game of the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship. Shortly thereafter, he became an established member of Argentina's senior international team. In 2006 he became the youngest Argentine to play in the FIFA World Cup and he won a runners-up medal at the Copa América tournament the following year. In 2008, in Beijing, he won his first international honour, an Olympic gold medal, with the Argentina Olympic football team.