{"id":1338811,"date":"2024-01-24T18:13:28","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T18:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1338811"},"modified":"2024-01-26T09:52:10","modified_gmt":"2024-01-26T09:52:10","slug":"european-league-double-double-first-player","status":"publish","type":"features","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/european-league-double-double-first-player\/","title":{"rendered":"Which European forward will be first to lay claim to Lionel Messi’s double-double crown?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even though he no longer plays in a major European league, the shadow of Lionel Messi continues to loom.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 36-year-old, now plying his trade in Major League Soccer for Inter Miami, recently picked up a record-extending eighth Ballon d’Or.<\/p>\n

His excellence is now the standard — rightly or wrongly — by which forwards are measured. There may never be another like him, but the Argentine consistently produced when it came to scoring goals and creating them.<\/p>\n\n

Since the start of the 2007\/08 season, Messi bagged at least 10 goals and 10 assists in 15 of his 16 league campaigns for boyhood club Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain. The only failure to — to borrow a basketball term — rack up a double-double came in his debut campaign in France.<\/p>\n

Among those playing in Europe’s top seven leagues during the 2022\/23 campaign, no fewer than 13 players (including Messi) hit double figures for both goals and assists.<\/p>\n

So far, we await the first to achieve this feat this season. However, some are very close.<\/p>\n

Within touching distance<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Without Messi and his nemesis Cristiano Ronaldo, there’s a credible argument to be made that Mohamed Salah is the best footballer playing on this continent. Since joining Liverpool, he’s been nothing short of ruthlessly consistent, managing a double-double in five of his previous six campaigns.<\/p>\n