We all ran out of superlatives for Lionel Messi many years ago.The Barcelona and Argentina forward has set new levels of excellence in football and will be remembered by many as the sport’s greatest ever player.Whether you rate Messi as the greatest or not, the 32-year-old continues to amaze with breathtakingly good individual performances.He was at it again on Tuesday evening, producing a series of magical moments for Barça against Real Valladolid at Camp Nou.Within the space of 15 minutes, Messi had provided a beautiful assist for Arturo Vidal, banged in the 50th free-kick of his career and embarrassed two opponents with nutmegs.

He then bullied Valladolid a little more in the second half, scoring another excellent goal before registering a second magnificent assist.

WhoScored gave Messi a perfect 10/10 rating for his performance, and Barça’s No. 10 subsequently became the first player to receive 100 perfect scores from the stats-based website since they began collecting data in 2009.

This was one of several remarkable statistics to emerge following Messi’s latest masterclass.

The South American, who could win a record-breaking sixth Ballon d’Or in December, has now surpassed long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo in club goals.

Messi now has 608 goals in 695 games following his brace against Valladolid, while Ronaldo has 606 in 813 games - 118 more matches than Messi has played. Incredible.

Messi’s free-kick stats are also outrageous.

He’s scored more free-kicks than any other club - yes, CLUB - over the past five seasons.

And he’s netted more direct free-kicks than another player in Europe’s top five leagues since the beginning of the 2012/13 campaign. Miralem Pjanic is second on the list but his tally of 15 pales in comparison to Messi’s 27.

Ronaldo, who has struggled to score from dead-ball situations since moving to Juventus, has netted 10 free-kicks since August 2012.

There’s no question that, right now, Messi is the world’s best free-kick taker and by some distance.

The debate over whether or not he’s the greatest footballer ever will rumble on long after he retires, but he continues to add weight to the argument that he’s the GOAT with every passing match.