Few would have imagined in the 2003/04 season when Leo made his debut in a friendly against Porto, that he would go on to achieve so much over the next eight seasons. His two goals on Wednesday night, set the latest record putting him level with Barça’s great Hungarian star of the 1950s Ladislau Kubala, as the Club’s second highest scorer.

This record is just the latest in a long line for the Argentinean, some of which we detail below:

► Leading scorer in a single season: Last season, Messi chalked up 53 goals in official games- 31 in the league, 12 in the Champions League, 7 in the Spanish Cup and 3 in the Spanish Super Cup, making him, together with Cristiano Ronaldo, the player to have scored most goals in a single season.

► Club’s leading scorer in the league: The season before, Messi scored a massive 34 goals in 35 league games, equalling Ronaldo’s Club record from the 1996/97 season.

► Leading international goal scorer: With 42 goals in international competitions (39 in the Champions League, 1 in the European Super Cup and 2 in the World Club Cup), Messi has scored more than any other player in the Club’s history and is also the Club’s leading scorer in the Champions League.

► Leading Scorer in the Champions League: Messi has been the highest scorer in the last three editions of the Champions League – something which only Müller and Papin had achieved previously. His 12 goals in the last campaign matched Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record set in the 2002/03 season.

► Leading scorer in the Spanish Super Cup: At the very start of this season, Messi set a new record with his three goals in the Spanish Super Cup to become the competition’s leading scorer with a total of 8 goals.

► In the 2009/10 season he became the only player to have ever been won the Fifa World Player of the Year Award, the Spanish League’s leading scorer award, The Golden Boot and the European Footballer of the Year Award in the same season.

► Two European Player of the Year Awards: Messi became the youngest ever player to receive the Award in consecutive seasons, when he picked it up in 2010.