He has won it all when it comes to club football - from La Liga to the Champions League, from Copa del Rey to the Club World Cup; but what has been missing from Lionel Messi's trophy cabinet is silverware for the national team.
He was a whisker away from fulfilling his dream in 2014 but for a heartbreaking late goal for Germany by Mario Gotze that crushed his dreams of lifting the FIFA World Cup Trophy.
But come Saturday, Messi will have another opportunity to win something with Argentina, when they take on Chile in the Copa America final.
Messi has always been regarded as the best player in the world but there have always been questions raised whether he is all time best. When you compare him with the likes of Pele, Diego Maradona, Zidane - critics always come up with an argument that all those former greats have helped their national team win big tournaments but Messi has never been able to do that.
So far in the Copa America he has proved the doubters wrong despite spending large parts of this tournament resting after a long club season.
In the opener against Chile on June 6, Messi did not play despite the chants of thousands of disappointed fans. Against Panama in Chicago on June 10, he emerged an hour into the game and scored three goals. He played a half against Bolivia in Seattle on June 14. Then in the semi-finals against USA, Messi had two assists and a brilliant free kick goal.
So despite being on the bench for majority of the tournament - he has mesmerized with his magic whenever he got the chance to be on the field. During Tuesday night’s Copa America game between the United States and Argentina, Messi scored off one of the best free kicks you’ll ever see and with that goal he also became the highest ever goal scorer for Argentina.
But the question still remains why he is not able to perform consistently for the national side and help it win titles.
Messi moved to Barcelona at a young age and adapted their philosophy brilliantly. He had the luxury to play alongside great players, from Ronaldinho, Xavi, Iniesta to Neymar and Suarez.
However, when it comes to Argentina - despite being a good all-round team - you cannot say that they are world's best.
They have some world class players in their ranks but when you compare them to Barcelona's class, they are no way near their quality. This can be one of the major reasons that Messi has not had the team around him to take Argentina to titles. So it can be said that Argentina depend so heavily on Messi that it puts too much pressure on him to stay consistent.
Having said that, performance and winning silverware for the national team are not necessarily the only criteria to judge greatness of a player; and Messi without a doubt has showed his class at the international stage as well, though not as consistently as he would have liked.
That leaves one thing for sure, that if Argentina lift the title come Sunday, Messi's greatness will reach a step above.
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