Lionel Messi Trophy! La Liga president open to the idea

LaLiga president Javier Tebas likes the idea of naming an award in honour of Barcelona forward Lionel Messi.

Lionel Messi is “the best in football history” and LaLiga president Javier Tebas is open to naming a trophy for the competition’s best player in his honour.

TOPSHOT - Barcelona's Argentinian forward Lionel Messi receives the Liga Best Player of the month award before the Spanish league football match FC Barcelona against Sevilla FC. (AFP)

Barcelona superstar Messi, a five-time Ballon d’Or winner, is LaLiga’s all-time leading goalscorer on 390 and has lifted the title on nine occasions.

The Spanish top-flight’s end-of-season awards have not been handed out since the 2015-16 campaign due to a desire to reformat, and Tebas would be keen to show recognition for the 31-year-old in the same way daily sports newspaper Marca have named accolades after Telmo Zarra, Rafael ‘Pichichi’ Moreno and Ricardo Zamora.

Asked about dedicating a trophy to Messi, Tebas told Omnisport: “I like that idea, we would have to think about.

“I think Messi will be the best in football history, he already is.

“Some people talk about Neymar but he is already 26 years old and as far as I remember Messi started to play for Barcelona as a youngster and he surprises us every year he seems not to have limits and he plays at a maximum level.

“He is the best and I think it’s a great idea to create a trophy for the best player every season named [after] Leo Messi.

“If it is Zarra for the best scorer…I think it’s a great idea.”