[VIDEO PICK: La Pulga] A looming fourth Ballon d'Or by the third best athlete in Argentina warrants melodramatic music married to epic footwork, we trust you'll agree.

The video wing of Soccer America tends to shy away from Lionel Messi’s exploits, possibly because he’d have to parachute into the Camp Nou and score blindfolded for any of us to raise an eyebrow.

As we look past the goals, all 91 of them, and focus on the total package: vision, passing, toughness, leadership, the great start by an injury struck Barcelona, and his current form with Argentina –-- there can be only one conclusion.

Messi is getting better.

I’m certain of that. I can’t tell you what that means for Barcelona, or Argentina’s chances at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, or the inevitable debates about his place atop soccer’s Mount Olympus.

But I would like to take a moment and show some gratitude towards that shy, scrawny 13-year-old kid from Rosario, Argentina who had the courage to move to Spain. Where he grew into a giant of a man, who still plays with the unbridled joy of that little boy.

Whether Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo or Andres Iniesta lifts the Ballon d’Or in Zurich on Monday ...

... Thank you, Leo.