Lionel Messi declared best Spanish Championship player ever

Baku. 7 August. REPORT.AZ/ From the 86 seasons of the Spanish league championship, Barcelona forward Lionel Messi has been declared as the best player in history, according to a study by the Research Centre of History and Statistics of Spanish Football (CIHEFE).

Report informs citing the Marca, the study analysed a number of factors, including minutes played in each season, goals scored from open play, penalty kicks, own goals and red cards, researcher Jose Antonio Ortega revealed.

"All of the evaluation criteria are marked with a simple and homogeneous scoring system that manages to evaluate all of the players with the same analysis in each season," he said.

Since the start of LaLiga in 1929, a total of 9,280 players have plied their trade in the Spanish top flight, with 854 of those being goalkeepers.

Messi rose to the top of the study for several reasons, including being the only player to vastly exceed 300 goals, currently sitting on 349.

According to Ortega, his final points tally of 545 comfortably put him ahead of Raul (528), Cesar (524), Zarra (493) and Quini (488).

Lionel Messi, Barcelona's midfielder, made his debut on October 16, 2004.He has been a Spanish champion 8 times in the squad of the Catalonia representative and has won 4 times the country cup and the same number of Champions League. The 30-year-old striker was awarded the Golden Ball five times.