(CNN) -- Lionel Messi has been hailed as the greatest soccer player the world has ever seen following his extraordinary exploits for European champions Barcelona. The 22-year-old has scored 10 goals in his past four games, including two hat-tricks in consecutive Spanish league matches. The diminutive Argentina forward has kept Barcelona in the hunt for a second successive La Liga title, and his two goals against Stuttgart last Wednesday helped put the Champions League titleholders into the quarterfinals of Europe's premier club competition. Blog: Is Messi better than Maradona? Sunday's treble against Zaragoza was his third this season, and his fifth since making his debut in 2004, taking him to 25 league goals this campaign -- five more than closest rival Gonzalo Higuain of Real Madrid, and two past his tally from last season with 11 games still to play.
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Barcelona president Joan Laporta says Lionel Messi is best player world has ever seen
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Messi has scored 10 goals in past four games, including two hat-tricks
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The 22-year-old is third on the Spanish club's all-time scoring list with 199 goals
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Coach Pep Guardiola says he has run out of superlatives to praise the Argentine forward
Joan Laporta
"He's the best player in the world right now and the best ever," @placeholder told Barcelona's Web site.
Pep Guardiola
@placeholder revealed that Messi had been in doubt for the Zaragoza game due to a gum infection in his mouth.