As crisp as you like — Lineker calls Messi the best yet

There can surely only be a few striking days to Christmessi now.

A hot favourite to win yet another Fifa Ballon d’Or crown and, having already claimed 82 goals in 2012, the world’s greatest player is now just three shy of the all-time record for goals scored in a single calendar year, a record which has been held for no less than 40 years by the great Gerd Muller – known as Der Bomber to the world but as the German Mick Leech to a few of us in South Dublin – who notched up a staggering 85 back in 1972.

It so happens that I had the pleasure of a chat with another of football’s ace marksmen this week, though with his slightly unfair reputation for finding the net mainly from a distance of a couple of yards, Gary Lineker’s is not a name you hear mentioned too often when it comes to assessing the all-time greats.