A Reddit user has graded the first 800 goals that Lionel Messi scored during his career, placing each attempt in five separate levels. And the findings from the research just prove how insanely good the World Cup winner is.

There are not many who would say the Argentine is not the greatest player of all time. All too often, we have seen him dance through defences like they weren't even there before smashing the ball past a stranded goalkeeper.

Messi's talent for doing exactly that led to him becoming only the second player ever after Cristiano Ronaldo to score 800 goals when he netted in Argentina's 2-0 victory against Panama, an absolutely astonishing achievement. A 105-minute compilation then emerged of all 800 career goals, a video that would take you an incredible amount of free time to watch. But one Reddit user decided that it would be the perfect way to help him get through a breakup.

Reddit user ‘wetwetwet11’ wrote that in their eyes, Messi scores multiple goals that nobody else could, and that they wanted to see if that was really the case.

They state at the start of the Reddit post that they intended to go through the footage in a “fair and transparent” manner, rating the goals to see, “if my perception of Messi’s goalscoring record matched reality.”

Each attempt was then given a level ranging from one to five, with the higher numbers home to the more difficult and impressive attempts.

Level One

Starting with the lowest rating, level one is home to “tap-ins or flukes,” goals that someone of Messi’s calibre would find impossible to miss.

In the eyes of the Reddit user, 63 of Messi’s 800 goals were graded as a level one, which accounts for just a mere 7.8%. Not that we needed to know that to know Messi doesn’t fall into the ‘tap-in merchant’ category of forward.

Importantly, penalties are omitted in the ranking system, although they would have fallen into the bottom two levels. Had the 110 penalties been included, then the percentage of Messi’s level one goals would have jumped to around 20%.

Level Two

Next up, we have a category that is home to a “pure strikers finish,” something which would not prove too difficult for most talented forwards.

These efforts for the Reddit user typically involve Messi being presented with an easy chance to score. He might be played in on goal, or pick up the ball up with very few people in front of him, making his job slightly easier.

Two-hundred-and-ninety-six of the Barcelona icon's first 800 goals are believed to fall into the level two camp, which equates to roughly 37%. If you combine that with his level one goals and his penalties, that equates to 57% of the total goals viewed. Still pretty incredible that there are so many that exist outside both of the camps above.

Level Three

There’s then a little jump in the grading system for the third category, with these goals described as, “the quintessential, bread and butter Messi goal that makes him so special.” A bit of skill to leave someone trailing in his wake, or perhaps he fashions something out of nothing. The ones you see all the time in compilations.

Of the goals cited by the user, Messi’s effort against Huesca for Barcelona falls into the level three camp and nicely sums up what it is. Picking up the ball on the edge of the box, Messi drops a shoulder to sit a defender down and leave others behind, before finishing superbly.

An incredible 232 efforts out of 800 fall into this camp in the eyes of the Reddit user, roughly 29%. A sign of how brilliant Messi has been for numerous years.

Level Four

Here we have goals that simply put Messi in a different stratosphere compared to other players, or, as ‘wetwetwet11’ puts it, goals that make Messi go, “from GOAT contender to the unquestionable greatest footballer to step foot on a pitch.”

The description given for a level four goal involves Messi beating two or more defenders, an "otherworldly piece of skill,” a brilliant passing move where Messi is heavily involved, or most of his free-kicks.

Some of the examples given are his incredible free-kick against Liverpool or his delicate finish against Real Betis in 2019, both of which make your jaw drop in disbelief.

Ninety-four of the goals out of the 800 are graded as tier four efforts, which equates to 11.75%. Given that most people wouldn’t shut up even if they scored one of these efforts, it only goes to show how insane Messi is that he has scored so many.

Level Five

It’s incredible to think there’s even one tier left after that last one, but fortunately, there are only five goals in here. These are the classic Messi goals which have been burnt into every football fan’s memory.

We have his incredible “Ankara Messi Kara Messi” goal against Getafe in 2007, his phenomenal run and finish against Real Madrid in 2011, and also his iconic dribble against Bayern Munich which saw him spin Jerome Boateng onto the floor before he dinked the ball over Manuel Neuer.

Two goals against Athletic Bilbao complete level five. The first is his fantastic run from the right side in the 2015 Copa Del Rey final where he beats four players en route to the goal, before finishing superbly. The second is from two years before and is just as breathtaking. Picking up the ball some way out from goal and with three players swarming around him, he neatly cuts left and right to dance through them as if they weren’t even there, before producing a delicate finish and sending commentator Ray Hudson into raptures.

He really is an alien compared to anyone else. After categorising all his non-penalty goals, the Reddit user worked out that the average goal difficulty of the Argentine’s first 800 was around 2.53, illustrating how elite a striker he is. You can check out the thread for yourselves below.