BARCELONA - Lionel Messi will celebrate his 600th start for Barcelona on Saturday in what his manager Ernesto Valverde hails as "a monstrous" achievement.

Barcelona news: Lionel Messi exposes Cristiano Ronaldo secret to bad form at Real Madrid - https://t.co/umecCaBe3r https://t.co/hoLSZwMFH0 pic.twitter.com/6bY82MYKqy — Cristal Moreno (@cristal1988_) November 3, 2017

The five-time Ballon d&39;Or winner becomes only the third player to reach the milestone for the Catalan club after ex-playmaker Xavi Hernandez (767 appearances) and the current captain Andres Iniesta (642).

In his 599 games since 2004, the 30-year-old Argentine legend has scored 523 goals all competitions to be the club&39;s all-time top scorer and the top scorer in La Liga with 360.

"It&39;s monstrous, 600 matches for the same club, with all the goals he&39;s scored, and all those assists, with all his vivacity," marvelled Valverde at the eve-of-match press conference on Friday.

Barcelona have scored 1,500 goals the past ten years. Lionel Messi has scored or assisted in 676 of them. -- pic.twitter.com/OrROLMIM1M — Soccer Memes (@SoccerMemes) November 3, 2017

"You run out of adjectives to describe Messi&39;s journey. It shows his importance to this club.

"To reach 600 games, that&39;s an awful lot of games! It&39;s extraordinary, like everything he does.

"It&39;s not only that he&39;s appearing for the 600th time, it&39;s the way he&39;s played in these 600 matches."

Against Sevilla at the Camp Nou, Messi has the opportunity to add to his Liga season-leading 12 goal haul which has lifted Barcelona to a four-point lead at the top of the table.

In contrast his fellow striker Luis Suarez has endured a fallow period this term with only three league goals.

"Luis is a goalscorer, it&39;s only a question of perseverence," said Valverde.

"If there is one thing that sums him up it&39;s this: he&39;s obstinate, aggressive, committed in his work and we know that he&39;s always got the chance to score goals...I don&39;t think Luis Suarez is going to down tools."