Mention ‘Messi 2011/12' to anyone who has followed modern European football with interest, and a wry smile will surely unfurl across their face.
Barcelona fans might be less inclined to smile, given that Real Madrid won the title and Chelsea clinched the Champions League, just a year after Barca's incredible La Liga and UCL double. But with every other available trophy going into the Camp Nou cabinet, there's still far more pride than shame attached to Barcelona's class of 2011/12.
Barcelona's failure to grasp either of the two biggest trophies was not without mitigation either. Having been persuaded to stay on as Barça manager a year longer than he'd planned, Pep Guardiola appeared visibly worn down, leaving for a year-long sabbatical at the end of the campaign.
Guardiola's misery was compounded by the fact that the £56million signing of Zlatan Ibrahimović proved a monumental flop. The Swede returning to Italy with AC Milan at the end of his only Camp Nou season. But Lionel Messi filled the void left by Ibra's poor showings and then some, scoring 73 goals and registered 28 assists.
This is how he came to be Europe's white-hot golden boy, sparking a decade-long transition into a World Cup-winner, eventually toppling countryman and idol Diego Maradona as the world's greatest number 10.
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“We never really got near Messi”
Messi was, of course, already established as the world's best player by this stage of his career. Aged 24 and about to collect this third consecutive Ballon d'Or, he had scored 53 times in the glorious 2010/11 campaign, topping it off with a 25-yard strike in the UCL final against Manchester United at Wembley.
After the eventual 3-1 win, then-United manager Sir Alex Ferguson admitted his side “never really got near Messi”.
Heading into the 2011/12 season, Messi was once again expected to produce the kind of greatness he had made almost quotidian throughout his career to date. But what he did, the sheer volume of goals he scored and created that term, shocked not merely because no one had thought him capable, but rather because such figures were never previously contemplated as a possibility for any player.
Messi began the season as he intended to go on, scoring three goals as Barcelona beat Madrid 5-4 across a thrilling, two-legged Supercopa de España contest. The first, bustling past the muscular and aggressive Pepe before rolling the ball under Iker Casillas' dive, earned a 2-2 draw at the Bernabéu.
In the return fixture, Messi first latched on to a Gerard Piqué backheel and chipped over Casillas in trademark fashion, before lashing home a triumphant volley to settle the tie late on.
From that point on, it felt as though records fell almost weekly. Over the course of the season Messi usurped the great Hungarian forward László Kubala to become Barcelona's second-highest scorer in competitive games, then becoming top dog outright in March, surpassing César Rodríguez Álvarez, with his 233rd strike, coming via the first goal of a hat-trick against Granada at the Camp Nou.
The peak of the Messi 2011/12 gun show
Messi also became the first player in the Champions League era to score five goals in a single game, thanks to his haul in a 7-1 thrashing of Bayer Leverkusen on 7th March 2012. Such was the ease with Messi continually ripped through Die Werkself, it was one of those rare occasions that his teammates could have walked off after five minutes and left Messi to it.
With Leverkusen already 3-1 down from their home leg, this was a free hit and nothing more. And with no choice but to put key men in advanced positions, the German side were sitting ducks. Messi’s first came when Gerard Pique’s interception allowed Xavi to clip a ball over the top for Messi to run onto. Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno rushed out, and Messi did what he’s always done best, lobbing left-footed into the net with insulting ease.
By contrast, the Argentine’s second goal was all of his own doing, as he cut in gracefully from the right flank and fired into the far corner. Half-time couldn’t come quickly enough for Leverkusen, but there was no respite to be had after it, and Messi lobbed Leno again, this time from a Cesc Fabregas ball that only underlined the sense of telepathy this Barca side had on the night.
Super sub Tello then briefly grasped the limelight with a brace of his own, with the goals sandwiching his assist for Messi’s fourth. Leno was the gift that kept on giving, as he failed to grasp Tello’s pass to Messi, allowing the Argentine a simple tap-in. Barcelona then somewhat eased off Leverkusen, but Messi still had enough gas left to curl in a fifth from 20 yards out, before Leverkusen got perhaps the most pointless consolation goal in UCL history through Karim Bellarabi.
Records tumbling like dominoes
In October he scored the fastest hat-trick in club history, his treble against Mallorca completed in just 17 minutes, and by the end of December, he had scored in six different competitions, including a goal and an assist to see off Porto on the UEFA Super Cup and a brace in the World Club Cup final against Santos.
He claimed club records for the most consecutive games scored in (10) and most consecutive away games scored in (seven).
There could be no flat-track-bully accusations levelled against Messi either: his nine hat-tricks included opponents such as Valencia, Atlético Madrid, Leverkusen and cross-city rivals Espanyol; he was directly involved in seven goals (three goals, four assists) in six games against Real Madrid and five (two goals, three assists) in four games against AC Milan in the Champions League.
Messi's 73-goal final total for the season set a new record for European football, eclipsing the 67 legendary German striker Gerd Müller racked up in 1972/73. The 50 La Liga goals the Argentinian magician notched, from just 36 starts, also set a new high mark for the Continent and earned him his second European Golden Shoe (of which he now has five and is currently on course for a sixth).
He also became the youngest player to reach 50 Champions League goals, and his 14 goals that season was a record in the competition.
Superhuman… but still a human
Messi couldn't prevent Barça from crashing out at the hands of Chelsea in the semi-finals, though. For all his enormous effort throughout the campaign, there were times Messi looked tired, worn down by the burden of carrying a side who, though still bursting with magnificence, were increasingly appearing ever so slightly past their best; the Chelsea tie was one such example, as was April's crucial 2-1 Clásico defeat at the Bernabéu, effectively sealing the title for Mourinho's Madrid.
Barça still finished the season with 91 points, enough to win La Liga in all but two previous seasons in Spanish top-flight history. But Madrid, with the speed of Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, the inventiveness of Mesut Özil and the steel of Mourinho's defensive-midfield “Trivote” of Lassana Diarra, Xabi Alonso and Sami Khedira, raced to 100 points, setting a new scoring record in the process.
“Time always wears you out and I am worn out,” Guardiola said at the end of the season, confirming his departure. “I am empty and need to refill … To sit here every three days a coach has to be strong, has to have to have life, passion. I have to get back to that and I can only do that by resting, distancing myself, because I believe we would have hurt each other, that is my perception.”
No stopping the GOAT
There was no rest for Messi, though. Starting the following season equally brightly, another record was his by the end of 2012, as his 93 total goals represented the most ever scored in a calendar year. Barça went on to reclaim the La Liga title under Tito Vilanova, who had been Guardiola's assistant, themselves accumulating 100 points.
And although Messi finished the season 13 goals shy of his haul for the previous campaign, his 60 total strikes came from 10 fewer appearances. In turn, his 46 league goals in 2012/13 came at an astonishing rate of one every 54.5 minutes, bettering his average of a goal every 65.4 minutes the year before.
Throughout the Guardiola years, the Camp Nou was a cauldron in which was brewed an intoxicating blend of world-class players at their peak, the instruction of a tactical genius and greatest player the world has ever seen. Although 2011/12 is remembered as the denouement of that great team, what Messi was able to achieve that season will not be replicated for a long, long time.
