Lionel Messi can't go two seconds without hitting the headlines right now.

News that he submitted a transfer request to Barcelona on Tuesday night have sent shockwaves through the sporting world and everyone is on tenterhooks to find out what will happen next.

Manchester City seem to have emerged as the frontrunners to sign the Ballon d'Or winner, while the likes of Inter Milan, Paris Saint-Germain and even Manchester United have also been linked.

Barcelona without Messi

But regardless of where Messi plies his trade once he kisses goodbye to Camp Nou, the one thing we can be certain of is Barcelona struggling to fill the void he will leave behind.

Lest we forget that Messi has won four Champions League titles, six Ballon d'Or crowns, 10 La Liga championships and three FIFA Club World Cups during his time with the Blaugrana.

Throw in the fact only Xavi has played more games for the club and Messi has amassed more goals than Barca's second, third and fourth record scorers combined for a breath-taking resumé.

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Messi: Football's total footballer

In other words, Messi's exit will hit Barcelona like a brick wall and you only need to look at his statistics from the most recent 2019/20 campaign to get a clear idea of said impact.

In fact, the data gurus at StatsChecker.com have discovered that Messi was the most complete footballer across the sport's top leagues last season, which is pretty good going for a 33-year-old.

They compiled a top 100 of 'total footballers' based on a score comprised of goals, tackles, clinical passes, assists, successful runs, accurate shots and shots on target with Messi coming out on top.

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15 most complete players (2019/20)

We've taken the top 15 players from Europe's top five leagues on the list, which you can check out below or click here to see StatsChecker's full century of players in all its glory.

15. Dejan Kulusevski (Parma) - 339

It must be gratifying for Juventus that their 2020 signing has enjoyed such a fantastic season with Parma and there's no denying that 10 goals and eight assists from midfield at 20 years old is impressive going.

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14. Nabil Fekir (Real Betis) - 341

There was no shortage of eyebrows raised when Fekir, who came so close to signing for Liverpool, opted for a move to Betis, but the World Cup winner has thrived in Spain with nine goals, four assists and 98 dribbles.

13. Willian (Chelsea) - 343

Arsenal have come up trumps by way of signing Chelsea's best player from 2019/20 and although his statistics are a little bloated by penalty-taking duties, 16 goal contributions and a passing accuracy of 82% is very impressive.

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12. Sadio Mane (Liverpool) - 346

Liverpool's brilliance as a team in 2019/20 was such that choosing their star player has been difficult but, if we had to say, Mane would be that man and scoring 18 goals is merely the headline amongst some brilliant data.

11. Jack Grealish (Aston Villa) - 350

It's no wonder that United are believed to be interested in Grealish because, well, he statistically outperformed all of their players last season and all while in a team that dodged relegation on the final day.

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10. Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus) - 351

This seems pretty brutal on Ronaldo when you consider he scored 31 goals in just 33 Serie A games despite being 35 years old, but perhaps 'only' chipping in with six assists has done him no favours with the stats.

9. Rodrigo De Paul (Udinese) - 357

Credit to De Paul for finishing so highly when, simply put, Udinese were bang average at best this season, but their Argentine midfielder bucked the trend with 13 goal contributions and cracking dribbling stats.

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8. Filip Kostic (Eintracht Frankfurt) - 365

It wasn't a vintage season for Eintracht despite their 5-1 win over Bayern, but at least Kostic can say that he outperformed all the players in Bavaria, kind of, by shining statistically with his 11 assists and 85 attacking passes.

7. Alejandro Gomez (Atalanta) - 371

If you're familiar with other stats entities such as WhoScored.com, then you'll know that Gomez always ranks highly when it comes to data and he continues to be an integral part of the thrilling project at Atalanta.

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6. Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace) - 384

A surprising one, to say the very least. You'd be forgiven for thinking that 2019/20 marked a downturn in form for Zaha with just four goals and three assists, but clearly his quality shone in some of the other data-sets.

5. Adama Traore (Wolverhampton Wanderers) - 391

Premier League defences spent the season soiling their trousers whenever Traore came sprinting at them with his incredible speed and strength, finishing the campaign with four goals and nine assists to his name.

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4. Emiliano Buendía (Norwich City) - 393

You what??? Here's proof that stats aren't the be all and end all in football because, despite being Norwich's best player this season, lest we forget that Buendia was part of one of the worst Premier League teams in history.

3. Luis Alberto (Lazio) - 395

If they weren't running away with Premier League and Champions League titles, Liverpool might actually regret having sold Alberto who has become a top player in Rome, contributing to 21 goals in 2019/20.

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2. Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City) - 407

It will come as absolutely no surprise that City's midfield magician finds himself on the podium, matching Thierry Henry's feat of 20 Premier League assists and even chipping in with 13 goals from deep for good measure.

1. Lionel Messi (Barcelona) - 507

All hail the king. Messi's goal-scoring might have taken a brief dip in 2019/20, but it was still enough to be crowned La Liga's number one striker and his incredible tally of 21 assists helps him to top the standings by exactly 100 points.

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KDB and Messi at Man City?

If there's only one thing you take from this list, let it be that whoever signs Messi either this summer or the next is essentially getting the most complete footballer in the world.

At the moment, it looks to be City, which is a pretty terrifying prospect when you consider De Bruyne, fresh from equalling the Premier League assist record, finds himself in second place.

Liverpool might have been crowned English champions in record time this season, but they can probably kiss goodbye to their trophy if Pep Guardiola is barking orders to De Bruyne AND Messi.

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