UEFA Champions League 2014/15 Season Awards

Best Player

Lionel Messi. Why even bother with this category? It was always going to go to Messi. His game has reached a seemingly impossible new gear this season in Luis Enrique’s rejiggered Barcelona squad. Along the way he’s put on career-defining performances multiple times. The group stages featured some of the typical majesty you’d expect from a world class player, but it was in the Round of 16 second leg against Manchester City where he made sure the world knew they were witnessing something special. It was a virtuoso performance, as close to Mozart as anything you’ll see on a football pitch. Messi dribbled, passed and nutmeged his way through a frequently dumbfounded City.

The game ended 1-0 in Barcelona’s favor, thanks mostly to a career performance by City keeper Joe Hart, but in the end that didn’t matter. Messi didn’t scored the goal – though he did provide the assist – and, in all honesty, he didn’t have to. The tiny Argentine is as damning a testimony as has existed in the history of football to the utter meaninglessness of tactics, of an intricately designed defense, of the hard tackle. His performance that night against City, mostly fruitless but for the assist and yet entirely beautiful, is proof that game is about more than goals.

Next: Best Team Performance