One incredible thing about the game of football is that, it has and will continue to produce amazing and record breaking players in and out of season. We have witnessed prolific footballers in times past and at some point we believed there can never be someone as good and great as them. Alas, the game of soccer has always proven us wrong as there has always been replacement for all and every great professional player that once lived.

In a recent interview, Samuel Eto was asked who he thinks can replace Lionel Messi in Barcelona after the great Argentine retires or leaves the club. In his response, Eto had said, he believed the person to replace the great Messi is Ansu Fati.

Before we share our sentiment over this, let us quickly put Messi's record into display. Lionel Messi is such a great and prolific player. He has seen it all and has won all the trophies there is to win except, of course, the World Cup.

Messi is an enigmatic goal scorer, an intelligent and innovative playmaker,

Little into Messi's records:

1. He holds Most goals in La Liga 455,

2. Most assists in La Liga 185

3. He holds the most hat-tricks in La Liga 36

4. 114 UEFA Champions League goals

5. 12 Copa América.

TROPHIES

1. 10 La liga titles

2. 6 Copa del Rey Honours

3. 8 Spanish super cups

4. 4 Champions Leagues

5. 3 UEFA Super Cups

6. 3 FIFA Club World Cups

TOTAL = 34 TROPHIES

He has scored over 700 professional career goals for club and country.

Now that is some intimidating profile there.

Messi is such a force to be reckon with in the history of football. the records he holds are just too intimidating. For any player to meet up and break those records will cretainly take a while, perhaps decades. Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying the world cannot produce a replacement for him, that is certainly no the case, but not any time soon.

Messi has raised the record ladder so high that it take an enigma greater than himself to pull off those records and smash them. We currently have amazing players doing great things, Ansu fati is certainly one of them, but no one is yet to measure up to the great field magician, Messi.

Ansu Fati's career is just starting, he is at the beginning of his career and has a lot more to learn. So far, in the La Liga games, he has been fantastic and doing incredible well. however, I personally don't think he will match up Messi's record or replace him.

Maybe I'm wrong and Eto is right, only time will tell. Fati is got alot of potentials. I believe if well managed, he will definitely come out to be another force driving the game of football. I personally admire his style and I hope he gets better and better down every game but for him to replace Messi requires more than just skills and youthful energy. There is a lot of mental energy and pressure he will have to keep up with.

Messi was not great simply because of his skills and potentials alone, but also his ability to manage pressure from the team, management, fans, media, and the general pubic. it takes such a huge mental strength to maintain such consistency.

Will Ansu Fati be able to pull that off? Only time will tell.

in the meantime, I really wish him well and a successful professional career.