Trophies, plaudits and individual honours have rained down upon the record-shredding 26-year-old Barcelona sensation over the past few years, but a signature showing at a major international tournament still eludes him.
Although he was a member of the Argentina team that claimed Olympic gold in Beijing in 2008, success in the World Cup and the Copa America has proved harder to come by.
A four-time Ballon d'Or-winner and three-time European champion with Barcelona, Messi's devastating ability cannot be questioned, but without success with Argentina, there will always be an asterisk against his achievements.
As an 18-year-old in 2006, he scored once off the bench against Serbia and Montenegro, while in 2010 Diego Maradona's tactics left him overburdened as the sole creative force in an unbalanced 4-1-3-2 formation.
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Now, though, he has been given everything he needs to succeed, with coach Alejandro Sabella carefully crafting his team to put Messi in an optimal position to thrive.
Having abandoned attempts to recreate Barcelona's system, Sabella now asks Messi to line up on the right side of an extravagantly gifted three-man frontline, usually alongside Gonzalo Higuain and Sergio Aguero.
"I don't think the Argentina national team depends on me -- far from it," he told FourFourTwo magazine recently.
"We've got a great group of players who can perform to their best and lift the trophy, which is our fundamental objective.