It was a joke, like Messi playing against the likes of Gibraltar every week, teams consisting of amateurs and players who play football after their shift at the factory, that in combination with the great teammates he had inflated his stats quite a bit (plus counting the friendlies).
Yeah, he was a great player tearing it up on the international stage but he was part of the absolute best team at that time, imagine if Messi had played for Spain during their 2008.-2012. domination period(and football has evolved so much, tactics and just the quality of opposition means that teams like Iran can be competitive and hold the likes of Argentina to just a 1-0 win).