As Lionel Messi prepares for this weekend’s El Clasico, Barcelona taking on Real Madrid in the world’s biggest club duel, he has lost one in what is a freakishly long line of records that belong to him.

That’s thanks to English freestyle footballer John Farnworth, who managed to control a ball dropped from a crane at 31 metres. Messi had held the record at 18 metres, and Farnworth was pretty chuffed with himself when he came out tops. Here’s Nine MSN:

“It is probably the hardest thing I have ever done,” said Farnworth, who once completed all 42km of the London Marathon while juggling a ball.

“The challenge is quite different from anything I have done before and you only have seconds to get it right. You think that the ball is dropping at a nice pace but at the last minute it speeds up and it is almost like a bullet.”

However, after an undisclosed number of attempts the freestyler nailed the move, bringing the ball down with the deftest of touches that kept the ball from bouncing above his head.

Well played son, although he should remember that Messi nailed his record at the first attempt having done zero training.

[source:ninemsn]

[imagesource:worldsoccer]