Lionel Messi will stay at Barcelona, the fans know he's a perfect 10

Before kick-off at the Camp Nou last night the east stand unfurled a banner half the size of a football pitch bearing the words ‘Thanks Leo, 500’ Typically it was pretty much out of date 12 minutes later when he scored again – goal number 501 of his career, in just 578 games.

Maybe they should install an old-school cricket scoreboard in the corner of the Camp Nou with someone inside it patiently turning over the numbers … 501, 502. Thanks Leo. Where will it stop?

If he scores another 24 he will overtake Gerd Müller who scored 525 goals for Bayern Munich between 1965 and 1979. If he does that he will have the one-club record and it might be one he will cherish more than most – that was certainly the way it looked on Sunday night in the Santiago Bernabeu when he celebrated the dramatic winner by holding his Barcelona shirt up to the gallery.

That gesture will have struck a chord with those who miss the days when every team played one to eleven and the shirt, with its number, was somehow more important than the player wearing it – who, no matter how good he was, was only its temporary keeper.

The more we see of Messi this season the less it seems odd that he has been allowed to run down his contract. It is as if, to hassle him to sign a new one mid-season would be an insult to how much he loves the club who splashed out on his hormone treatment back when he was a brilliant but slightly growth-stunted teenager and have watched their investment pay out in silver cups and golden balls ever since.

The relationship he has with the club’s supporters was certainly in evidence on Wednesday. The stadium announcer screamed: ‘Messi 500’ before the game but the player seemed unaffected. There was applause from all four sides of the Camp Nou but his only reaction to it was to postage stamp another shot from the edge of the area as he continued his warm-up.

They chanted his name on ten minutes of the game too – timed to coincide with his shirt number – they had never done that before. Players usually only get that treatment after they have retired. Then when he scored they took their Barcelona shirts off behind the goal to replicate his gesture after scoring that last-kick-of-the-game winner at the Santiago Bernabeu.

The chant on ten minutes might not be repeated in every game but the shirt gesture has become a thing without doubt. He wasn’t flashing abdominal muscles for his next documentary film; and he wasn’t indulging in grotesque product placement. It was a gesture born of a moment that could never have been rehearsed for. It topped even Graeme Souness planting the Galatasaray flag into the centre circle at Fenerbahce’s stadium. The Santiago Bernabeu, home of Real Madrid, and Messi – Barcelona’s greatest ever – the last man standing.

When he was taken off on the hour last night – and once again his last kick had been a goal – there was more applause and this time he did acknowledge it as he departed.

The bond has always been strong but it now seems stronger than ever. He’ll sign. He’ll stay. What would be the point of going anywhere else when you can become the greatest one-club man in football history?

And what will they do with the shirt when he has finished? Who will wear the number ten in the first Post-Messi season? Neymar would not be such an inadequate heir but if Messi lasts another three or four years then the Brazilian may have flown the nest – the ties that bind him are not so strong.

Considering Barcelona’s sense of theatre it seems most likely that for a while the shirt will hang in the club’s museum with no-one asked to carry its weight on their shoulders. "Without Messi Barcelona wouldn’t create a single chance in two hours," grumbled one Madrid-leaning pundit on Spanish radio on Wednesday night. A slight exaggeration granted; but they are certainly only still in the title race because of him.

They know that. Which is why the 7-1 over Osasuna was as much an ode to the Argentinian, as it was a must-win 90 minutes in the title run-in.