I’ve spent the last year and a half of my
life writing the stories of the greatest football players we have ever witnessed and trust me
when I say, at times, it’s hard to put into words just how mind bending their achievements
were…. at times 15 minutes isn’t enough, sometimes
not even close, with Lionel Messi that’s exactly what happened, it’s impossible to
capture the magnitude of his career in any sort of media, you had to be there, you had
to rise up from your couch every time he did the impossible, you had to scream out his
name at every perfectly timed shot from outside the box, you had to be there from when it
started, right to this very moment, where you stare at the highlights of his career
and beg the football gods for it not to end… for one more body feint, maybe 3 or 4 and
a chip over the goalkeeper at the end, one last celebration, one more time where you
can look to your friends faces who are as euphoric as you and say one final time, “wow,
he’s from another world”. As we approach that final hurrah, it’s time
I try my best at telling you how one becomes a footballing god, how one becomes Lionel
Messi. The day was the 24th of June 1987, in Rosario,
one of the biggest cities in Argentina, and a baby was born. His roots expanded far across the Atlantic
ocean, from both sides of his family he had Italian ancestors, who arrived in Argentina
following world war II, Italy was left in a state of chaos, life was getting harder
every day and in Argentina, foreigners were not only welcomed they were in great demand
thanks to a shortage of labour. So they sailed off, hoping to forget the horrors
of war and move on. But the Italians, though they made up a great
part of this exodus, weren’t the only ones… Messi’s great grandmother from his father’s
side came from another place in Europe, Catalunya, as she left it all behind, she could have
never known that one day her grandson would be the region’s biggest symbol, the new
ruler of Barcelona. Growing up in a country like Argentina back
in the late ’80s, you’d pretty much be peer pressured into loving football, they
were living the grand old days back then, Maradona was still going strong, actually,
the year Messi was born just happened to be Maradona’s highest goal-scoring season. To add assault to injury, in a good way, Messi’s
family happened to be filled with football fans, as long as he was around the other kids
in his family he pretty much had to play, and he was always among them, being the youngest
of 3 brothers who all pursued football at some point and they weren’t even the only
ones, two of his cousins would become professional footballers as well, his younger cousin, Emanuel
even went on to play in the Bundesliga at one point. At 4 years of age, Messi was playing football
by himself at a pitch near his house, where Grandoli, a small club in his town, had their
training sessions. Messi was repeatedly kicking the ball into
a wall when the club’s president, Salvador Aparicio walked by frantically. You see, the youth team had a match to play
very soon and there weren’t enough kids, so Salvador went up to Messi and told to go
ask his mom if he could play. At first, it didn’t go as planned, Messi’s
mom would say “No, no, he’s no good at football, and anyways he’s too small”....
thankfully his grandma was there and she wasted not time saying “Come on, let him play,
it won’t do him any harm” this very moment changed Messi’s life forever, had his grandma
not been there he probably would have not joined the team and had his mom not worried
so much, the president wouldn’t have said the following words “don’t worry, I’ll
play him in the right-wing, so he’ll be by the stands near you, in case something
goes wrong”, little did he know he had just defined great part of Messi’s career. When he started playing, everyone was in shock,
he ran through the pitch as if the other kids weren’t there, it almost seemed unfair how
much better he was. When interviewed about how it was to watch
him play back then, Salvador said: “Believe me, he already did all the incredible things
he does today, the only difference was that the ball came up to his knees” “We worried
about his size, he never seemed to grow much, but we all said the same thing, we got the
next Maradona in our hands”. Everybody could see it, everybody knew, it’s
like he was born with it. Even at school, teachers had to pay extra
attention during recess because kids would literally end up fighting each other over
having Messi play in their team. Wrhenever he played against other youth teams,
the kids would stay behind on the pitch to watch him put on a show, juggling the ball
and all kinds of other tricks. As you might imagine, Messi was a secret that
a club like Grandoli couldn’t keep for long. After little more than two years he was already
on the move… the biggest club in Rosario was Newell’s Old Boys, their academy had
provided the Argentinian national team with more players than any other, and naturally,
Messi was a big fan, after all his first-ever birthday gift was their jersey. As Leo played his last season at Grandoli,
Maradona had begun playing for Newell’s, and of course, Messi’s family made sure
to take the kids to watch him and so by the next year, Messi had joined the club as well. Aged only 6, in his first-ever game for the
club, they won 6 nil, Messi scored 4, I guess he was setting the tone because this youth
team would become known as “La Maquina del ‘87”. It seemed that having a young Lionel Messi
wasn’t enough for Newell’s, this youth team contained a bunch of other youth talents. From very early on, people realized they were
incredible, any squad who faced them was utterly demolished, with no chance whatsoever. They would play 7-a-side until the age of
11, by which they had been invincible for 3 whole years, never once coming close to
losing. Throughout all of this, Messi’s main influence
when it came to football weren’t his brothers or cousins or even his father, the one to
show him the ropes was actually his grandma, her name was Celia and she seems like an amazing
person, she was the one who encouraged him to play the most from the beginning. She brought him to his first training session,
got his parents to buy him his first pair of boots, and once she even convinced a coach
to call Messi up for a game. Messi loved her, I guess he still does, he
once told the press that when he was a kid he used to fight his cousins over who would
get to sleepover at her house. Celia was ahead of everyone else, she had
this ritual, whenever she took Messi to practice, instead of wishing him luck or literally anything
else she would say “Remember, one day you’re gonna be the greatest football player in the
world”. The year between the ages of 10 and 11 was
perhaps the toughest in Messi’s childhood, first of all, Celia passed away and it took
a toll on him, he has said that to this day he still thinks about her all the time when
playing football, he said there isn’t one particular thing about her that could portray
what she meant to him, you would have to know everything about her, it wasn’t just the
fact that she loved him that made her so important, it was how she showed her love. I guess in an attempt to show his love for
her in a way she would appreciate, nowadays every time Messi scores, he points to the
sky as a way of honoring her life. This could have been enough to throw off any
child, there were a lot of feelings to process, a lot of emotions to get through, but then
Messi was hit with another heavy blow. Leo had been followed by an endocrinologist
under the club’s advice for about a year now, and the news weren’t great, Leo was
diagnosed with a hormone deficit that was responsible for his stunted growth and after
a long year of testing, Messi was prescribed injections that he would have to take daily
in order to make up for it. One of the players who were part of his youth
team recalled that when Messi slept over at his house, he would always bring a box and
ask to keep it in the freezer, then in the middle of the night, he would go there and
administrate the dosage himself, though at first that other kid found it weird, he said
that for Messi it was like brushing his teeth, just another task and so soon everyone got
used to it as well. But it wasn’t the possibility of this becoming
a traumatic experience for young Leo that worried his parents the most, it was the treatment’s
cost of about 1000 dollars per month that soon their insurance would not be able to
cover for. At first Newell’s agreed to cover the costs,
but eventually, an economic crisis hit Argentina and they just couldn’t get the money. The family was scared, the consequences the
lack of treatment could have on Messi’s future were shocking, so they went looking
around for a solution. It was at this point that Messi tried out
for River Plate, which was a joy for the young boy who idolized Pablo Aimar. Leo tried out for only 20 minutes before they
asked him to join, but first, he needed to get a permit from Newell’s and that’s
when things got sour as they refused to give it to him, probably scared of the possibility
of losing a prospect with his kind of talent. This upset led Messi to stay for a couple
more years with Newell’s trying their best but failing to gather up enough money for
the treatment. Still, as long as Messi kept on playing, the
Machine of 87 kept on turning, winning every tournament, defeating every opponent, they
became so famous, they even went all the way across South America to play matches in foreign
countries. They were so wildly superior that one of the
recurring gags frequently told about them is that the goalkeeper got so bored of having
no involvement in the game that he would literally sit down on the penalty spot watching the
game as if he was in the stands. I could swear that only happened in cartoons. Messi was of course the center of attention,
once the coach was asked if it was true that Messi had scored 500 goals over his time there
and he smirked and replied: “500 at the very least”, and you know what’s funny
about that, one of his other coaches had made a deal with Leo, he found out Leo loved these
chocolate cookies from Argentina called alfajores and he proposed that for every goal he scored
in a match he would give him one, but at that rate he would be the world’s first diabetic
football prodigy. Maybe that’s why eventually a new deal was
proposed as a joke, the coach said he would only give Messi cookies if he scored a header. In the very next game, Messi pretty much dribbled
through the whole squad, including the goalkeeper, got to the goal line, flicked the ball up,
headed it into the goal, looked back, smiled at him, and showed him 2 fingers. As Messi headed towards his 13th birthday,
a man landed in Brazil, coming from Barcelona, but he was no ordinary man, his name was Carles
Rexach and from 1965 to 1981 he played 328 matches for FC Barcelona, winning the cup
winner’s cup, being La Liga’s top scorer at one point and even partnering up in attack
and as the second coach of the mythical Johan Cruyff. Carles was now well into his retirement and
working as a scout, as he made his rounds in Brazil he got a call from an Argentinian
agent telling him he had to come and watch this kid with immense talent. The agent seemed so excited that he began
considering it, so he asked how old he was, assuming that given all the stories he heard
of the kid he would have to be at least 18 years old, I’m guessing he didn’t expect
the starboy to be only 13, his age jumped out to him, how can such a young boy be already
getting grown men so excited about his abilities? So Carles told the agent to schedule a trip
to Barcelona, so they could run the boy through some trails. Back in Rosario, Messi’s family heard about
the news and as you might imagine they were euphoric, especially because a big club like
Barcelona could for sure help Messi with his medical bills, but there was one problem,
Newell’s had already stopped one transfer and there was some bad blood between the family
and the club since they claimed Newell’s barely sent them any of the money they promise
to provide in order to help with the costs of Messi’s treatment, so they went old school
and just told the club Messi was sick with pneumonia and wouldn’t be able to go to
training for about 3 weeks, while in reality, he would be in Barcelona, trying out for the
club. When Messi started, Carles was abroad going
about his scout duties, and though everyone was shocked at his skill, many doubted him
because of his height and were unsure if they should sign him. When Carles got back he found it all strange
so he went to watch a match by himself, he walked around the pitch once and it took him
15 minutes to go all the way around because he constantly stopped in awe of what Messi
would do on the pitch, by the time he got around to the bench he sat and told the rest
of the staff: “sign him, don’t think about twice if someone asks you can say it was my
decision”. Wise man, uh? Despite all of this, higher-ups at Barcelona
pulled the plug, said the kid was too young, that it was too risky and the club didn’t
need any more mess, considering they had just lost Luis Figo to Real Madrid and were in
a really bad state financially. Between September and December nothing happened,
the family kept moving back and forth between Argentina and Spain and nothing, they began
getting anxious as their whole stunt meant Messi was no longer playing for Newell’s
and eventually Messi even traveled to Spain in hopes of joining Atletico or Real Madrid,
but nothing came of it. That’s when D-day finally came about and
a napkin changed Messi’s life forever. The agent met with Carles and eventually,
there was a call from Messi’s father, he was desperate, telling them he would go back
to Argentina, he didn’t see anything moving forward, Carles acted fast and saw he needed
tangible evidence so he looked around for paper and found only a napkin, he wrote down
a mock contract and signed it stating that Messi would sign for Barcelona regardless
of any objections for other members of the club. It worked wonders and got Messi’s family
to trust that he would make it work, over the coming weeks, paperwork was filled and
Messi was officially an FC Barcelona player, it was only a matter of getting the family
registered in the country before he debuted. For a while, there was a sort of limbo where
Messi wasn’t necessarily tied with Barcelona though he was already living the average life
of an academy footballer, and you know what that means, word got around fast, Juventus,
Inter Milan, Liverpool, and Real Madrid all contacted Messi’s agent, and if you think
that all of that was meaningless agent talk let me tell you that Arsenal eventually even
got Arsene Wenger to have dinner with the agent to learn more about Leo, he has even
said they were close to signing him, the same way they did with Fabregas. Regardless, he stayed and a whole new chapter
began. At first, Messi wasn’t allowed to play for
Barcelona’s academy, as not only was he still registered for Newell’s, he was also
considered a non-community minor, since he came from a foreign country and for the first
year the only solution found was to keep him training with the squad while only going on
friendlies with the B team. But, though Barcelona tried their best at
sheltering and protecting his talent, to let it grow they had to let him run free and so
in his second game for the club, disaster struck… Messi broke his fibula and was out for the
rest of the season… There was worry that he would struggle to
go back to his usual frenetic playstyle, but once he was back, he finally got to enroll
in the Spanish Federation, and he was so incredible that quickly he got promoted to the under
16 squad, being trained by Tito Vilanova and playing alongside some of the biggest talents
in Spain, kids whose names meant nothing back then, but would one day be heard all around
the world like Cesc Fabregas and Gerard Pique, both players who would leave Barcelona for
England soon after, so maybe Messi moving to Arsenal wasn’t that far fetched at all. Over his first days with the squad Messi was
very shy, they say he was so quiet entering the locker room for the first time that some
didn’t notice him until he had already sat down. Once he got on the pitch, the coach asked
what position he liked playing at, one of the other players said that everyone was scared,
they had heard insane stories about Messi and they all thought if they picked their
spot, it was over for them. The goalkeeper of that squad has been quoted
saying that he felt the only way to stop him “was to pull out a pistol and shoot him,
but honestly, he would probably dodge it”. But that doesn’t mean Messi was invincible,
his health problems remained, and though there were no more worries regarding him not getting
the treatment he needed, it turned out that at this point, the treatment was a gift and
a curse. While still going through its first years,
the treatment took a toll on Messi’s body and it was evident by his lack of stamina. Looking back at his first interviews, you
can even see his lament that he was unable to keep up with the pace of the other kids,
but still, whenever he did find the energy to perform he was unparalleled, with a never
seen playstyle, it seemed like he had taught himself a whole new way to approach dribbling,
even though many compared him already with Diego Maradona it was also obvious that the
aggressiveness with which he moved forward, the quickness with which he slightly adjusted
the ball seemingly once every millisecond made for moments that would not be forgotten,
it was as if Messi was an artist, carefully, deliberately, putting down one brushstroke
at a time, slowly painting the background as he patiently waited for the moment when
his creativity would finally be unleashed on the canvas. As the years passed, Messi made it through
the ranks at breakneck speed and slowly but surely started bonding with the other kids,
after all after sometime Messi’s family went back to Argentina and Messi started living
in La Masia, where though others managed to see their families at times every weekend,
Messi would only be with his once or twice every year. Regardless Messi persevered and by his fourth
year in Barcelona, as he turned 16 years old, he broke a record, playing for 5 different
squad levels in a single year, before him, no one had managed more than three but that
year he started for the under 19 B squad, moved on to the under 19 main team, then oddly
enough he got called up for the first team and only then to the C and B teams, proving
he was incredible at any level, no matter what. The debut for the first team happened because
Barcelona were invited to play a friendly against FC Porto in what would be the opening
ceremony of the Dragão Stadium, but there weren’t enough players available, so they
were forced to bring in academy players like Messi to fill up the squad. Here’s one for the fans of the channel,
as some of you know I’m from Porto, what you don’t know is that on that day in 2003,
my parents went to watch the match, hoping to catch a glimpse of Barcelona greats like
Ronaldinho, Xavi, Overmars, Kluivert, etc. Well, aside from Xavi, none of those players
were available, which I’m guessing was terribly disappointing to them, little did they know
they were getting to watch the first 16 minutes of a 16-year-old who would become Barcelona’s
greatest ever player. Now the thing that really matters to me, they
didn’t bring me along. I’ve asked them where they left me and they
don’t even remember, yes I’m still pissed, and yes I’m considering the possibility
of filing in for a child abuse case. By the way, just a few months later they also
went on to watch Cristiano Ronaldo’s debut at the Euros, in that same stadium and they
also didn’t bring me, but that’s just my childhood trauma, so moving on. Before his first official season started,
one long-standing argument was finally settled, from the moment the Spanish federation realized
Messi was eligible for citizenship they had been attempting to bring him on, but Messi,
having grown up idolizing El Albiceleste, kept pursuing the dream of playing for Argentina,
so to settle the matter Argentina set up two under 20 matches in June of 2004 to lock Messi
in as an Argentinian international, leaving the world to wonder what could have been had
he joined the iconic Spanish national team of the late 2000s. And just like this the whole world waited
holding their breaths as Messi’s first official season was about to start, as he prepared
to spread his magic dust on the pitch in front of thousands for the first time. Leo finally got his official debut, against
Espanyol, coming on with 7 minutes to go as Barcelona beat them 1 nil, but this win was
a rare occurrence over Messi’s first few matches. In his friendly debut against Porto, they
lost 2 nil, but well to be fair, it was Mourinho’s Porto and Barcelona were depleted, to say
the least, but what is much harder to justify is how Barcelona lost on Messi’s first-ever
start for the club. It’s almost like Messi was paying upfront
for the decades of immeasurable success he would have. So, on his first-ever start, Messi lined up
beside Henrik Larsson, Puyol, Giuly, Bronckhorst, Xavi, Iniesta, and Eto’o to play Gramenet
in a Copa Del Rey last-32 match. Back then Gramenet was playing in the third
tier of Spanish football and they weren’t even heading towards promotion but that day,
somehow, they held Barcelona to a goalless draw all the way to extra time, where they
stuck the dagger, scoring the winning goal that would take them all the way to the quarter-finals
of the Copa Del Rey where they got beaten by eventual champions Real Betis. Quite a story and it only gets better once
you realize that Gramenet is still to this day the only team that Messi has faced and
not managed to beat on any occasion, I’m betting they hold pretty tight to that record. This string of unlucky results continued once
Messi got his first full 90 for the club and debuted in the Champions League against Shakhtar
Donetsk, somehow losing 2 nil. But before the end of the season, one of the
first jaw-dropping moments of Lionel Messi brilliance finally came, it was a match against
Albacete and Messi came in with only 2 minutes left in the match, it was supposed to be a
novelty but Messi had other plans, mere seconds after being subbed on, Ronaldinho spotted
his run, chipped the ball over the defense and Messi alone with the goalkeeper to beat,
used his first touch of the match to get the ball in place and the second to lob it over
the keeper, the stadium erupted for a second and then the flag was up, offside…. but
the people watching from home, quickly got the news that in reality, he hadn’t been
offside… regardless Messi smiled running back to position, Ronaldinho smiled back at
him and unbelievably just a few seconds later Messi got the ball began running right towards
the defense, and on the last second he gave the ball back to Ronaldinho and would you
believe it? Ronaldinho chips it over the defense and Messi
lobs it over the keeper… a mirrored image of the first goal, still they couldn’t stop
him. Leo went running towards the roaring crowd,
flailing his arms around, Ronaldinho approached him, let out a smile and Messi hopped on his
back, giving us a moment for the ages. Over the summer he took part in the Under-20
World Cup, having finished qualification as the top scorer among his teammates, despite
being mainly used as a sub, due to his ongoing problems with stamina. What followed this was a moment that serves
to show his mindset and just how much hard work goes into becoming Lionel Messi. Upset over losing out on playing time that
could serve as a way to further help his squad, Messi took on extra training alongside a personal
trainer to increase muscle mass and compensate for his health problems. Still once the tournament started, he was
protected, not once being given the opportunity of playing a full match over the group stage. But once they qualified for the knockout stages,
something changed, Messi began playing the full 90 and he was absurd, as Roy Hudson would
go on to say, men are supposed to be equal in God’s eyes but Messi makes you think
otherwise. In the last 16, he scored to start the comeback
against Columbia, then he put down Argentina’s third to send his Spanish teammates home,
in the semi-finals he scored the opener against eternal rivals Brazil and in the final he
scored two penalties as Argentina beat Nigeria 2 to 1 to become Under 20 world champions,
Leo was the best player and the top scorer of the tournament, but of course, these successes
would only be the first of many. A few weeks later, he would earn his debut
for the Argentina main squad against Hungary, and once again it would not go his way, about
an hour into the game he came in and what happened next no one could have guessed, about
30 seconds after being subbed in, he got the ball for the first time, a Hungarian player
began pulling on his shirt Messi flailed his arms back and it’s hard to see if he even
hit the players face but he complained like Messi had broken his jaw. Even the Bulgarian commentators can be heard
saying that he probably won’t get sent off, but the referee decided otherwise and Messi
was out less than two minutes after coming in. Regardless, back in Barcelona it was time
for his third season with the club, an iconic moment took place… Barcelona took a tour through the United States
during their pre-season and Ronaldinho who had been a friend of basketball star Kobe
Bryant decided to meet up with him, as they approach the team Ronaldinho told Kobe he
was gonna introduce him to a player who was going to be the greatest of all time, Kobe
looked at him and said “What do you mean? You’re the one who’s the best”, Ronaldinho
smiled and said “No, that kid right there… he’s gonna retire us all”. As you might imagine, he was talking about
Leo who, that season, finally became a first-team regular. After some games getting used to his new role
Leo scored again, it was his first champions league goal, yet again chipping the keeper
in a match against Panathinaikos where he got an assist as well. Over January we would get the first goal-scoring
streak of his career, with 6 goals over 7 matches, made more impressive by the fact
he only played the full 90 in one of them, ending up with an average of a goal every
59 minutes. Over the next few weeks, Leo is called up
for his first-ever knockout stage game at the international level, the opponent is Chelsea,
this was a huge opportunity for him to announce himself to the world and he did it in a spectacular
fashion. Even if in the end it was a Samuel Eto’o
goal that made the difference, nobody was talking about him, the focus was on the 17-year-old
genius who spent 90 minutes making a mockery out of the Chelsea defense. As the world was eager to see more of him
at this stage, Messi came on for the second leg, only to go down 25 minutes in and be
out for months due to a torn muscle in his thigh. After seeing Barcelona draw Benfica in the
quarter-finals it became apparent to everyone that this super team had a good chance of
making the final and I’m guessing Messi knew that as well, he worked extra hard for
months in hopes of edging past this injury on time for the final and he did it, on the
Tuesday before the match he was back in training and he made it public that he wanted to play
in the final. The team sheet comes out and his name is nowhere
to be seen, Frank Rijkaard didn’t wanna risk putting such a young player who was coming
off an injury into what was bound to be the most hard-fought game of the season. Barcelona played out the final and they were
champions, Messi watched from the stands but he didn’t look happy… perhaps sensing
this, the players went up to him and asked him to join the celebrations on the pitch,
he refused, he felt he hadn't been part of it so he didn’t deserve to celebrate among
them. This was a decision he would come to regret
and make up for a few years later. Over the summer, Messi played in the 2006
World Cup and it started well, he scored in his first match, made two more notable appearances
but when Argentina met Germany in the quarter-finals, José Pekerman decided against starting him,
even as Argentina went in front, Messi whose high usage rates and ability to keep the ball
could have been used to control the tempo of the match was kept on the bench… This decision went on to be criticized for
years to come as Argentina would go on to concede and lose the match on penalties. As the 2006/2007 season started, Messi finally
started becoming an unquestionable presence in every Barcelona match, still by mid-November
he had only scored 4 goals, and to make matters worse what followed was a 3-month long injury
that saw him miss 18 matches. No one could have predicted that after coming
back from injury he would somehow step up his game to a level he had never shown before…. After 2 weeks back, Messi was yet to leave
his mark on the scoresheet but then came El Classico… Barcelona actually sat 5 points clear of Real
Madrid in second place, but that day it seemed it was 11 Real Madrid vs Messi by himself. Just 5 minutes into the match a poor interception
left Van Nistelrooy right at the edge of the box, completely centered towards the goal,
and just like the commentator said, he just doesn’t miss those… Real were in front 1 nil. Just 6 minutes after that, Messi got the ball
on the right after a great pass by Samuel Eto’o and he slotted it into the far post,
leveling the game but to no avail as in the next play Guti would get tripped in the box
and Van Nistelrooy would bury it from the penalty spot. Finally, the match calmed down a bit but still
by the 28th minute, Ronaldinho magically squeezed in between every Real Madrid player, eventually
striking the ball straight at the goalkeeper, leading Messi to score again on the rebound. For the next 40 minutes, there were no changes
to the scoresheet, the spotlight shining down on Messi and Ronaldinho who seemed as in sync
as any duo could ever be but then the inevitable happened, if you don’t score you concede,
it’s one of the oldest teachings in football and so a Sergio Ramos header put Real in front
for the third time. What followed was some of the most intense
drama seen at El Classico, Barcelona was pushing forward over and over again but the clock
was ticking down and as the injury time was added to the clock, Ronaldinho got the ball
towards the center of the pitch, Messi approached him, the through ball made his way to him,
the first touch put two players behind him and by the time Ramos got to him, Messi was
locked and loaded and there was no time to stop the shot that would put Barcelona at
the top of the table. In the 50 years before that day, only 2 Barcelona
players had scored a hat trick in El Classico, Gary Lineker, and Romário, and wanna know
one thing about them? They surely weren’t 19 years old at the
time. Over the streak of games that followed Messi
totaled 7 goals in 6 matches, but the first goal he scored in the last of those matches
against Getafe was out of this world, comparisons between Messi and Maradona were low hanging
fruit back when he first started, but if Messi kept telling the press that from his point
of view they were two different players, that day it was at the very least confirmed that
they were equally as phenomenal. It’s hard to see Messi’s goal without
immediately thinking of Maradona’s goal of the century in 1986, they got the ball
in roughly the same place, they progressed forward with the same frenetic speed, left
what seemed like half a dozen defenders behind, only to end up dribbling past the keeper in
the same way, leaving the last defender hanging hopelessly by the near post. Iconic as it gets, one of the most memorable
football moments ever, let alone by a teenager. Look, the world as a whole was freaked out
by their similarity at this point, so imagine how everyone felt when just a few weeks later
in a match against Espanyol, Leo tied the match by jumping alongside the goalkeeper
and scoring with his hand, just like the famous hand of god, it was like Messi was paying
homage to the man who led his country before him, it was beautiful as it was intriguing
to see. Unfortunately, despite Messi’s best efforts,
after drawing against Real Betis in the last minute of the match, Barcelona dropped down
to second place, tied on points with Real, who would eventually be champions. Over the summer, Messi took part in his first-ever
Copa America and it seemed that right from its start this competition was determined
to leave Messi with a sour taste in his mouth. After scoring in both knockout matches that
led to the final, Argentina met Brazil, but not in a usual way, this Brazilian squad was
missing pretty much every single one of their best players, as they had requested to skip
the tournament in order to get some rest following a tough club season. Imagine the shock when a Brazilian squad without
Ronaldinho, Kaka, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, and Adriano managed to beat Argentina by 3
goals despite their heavy favoritism. Messi started the next season with an impressive
goal-scoring streak of 8 goals in 6 games, including ones against Atletico, Lyon, Sevilla,
and Stuttgart. He kept a steady supply of goals over the
season and by December he made the podium of the Ballon D’Or for the first time, sitting
below only Cristiano and Kaká. Later on, in the second leg of the last 16
matches against Celtic, having already scored twice against them, Messi came off crying,
once again having problems with his hamstrings. The thing is Barcelona was aware Messi shouldn’t
have played the game, but due to pressure from the media, Rijkaard ended up fielding
him regardless. After this injury, Messi began being even
more heavily tracked by the medical staff, following a new workout regime involving lots
of stretching of his thigh muscles and having his sleep and meals tracked as well. Once he was back on the team, one of his first
matches would be one for the history books, a champions league semi-final, Barcelona vs
Manchester United. The first match between Messi and Ronaldo. Unfortunately, it would be far from the most
exciting match they’d provide us with. With Messi injured and only one goal between
the two legs, there isn’t much to be said about it, though Ronaldo did miss a penalty
3 minutes into the match, so that was a fair bit intense. Regardless, Barcelona was out of the Champions
League, and with the league not going their way either, only managing 3rd place, 18 points
off the top, Rijkaard was replaced by a new manager, an ex Barcelona player, you know
who it is, Pep Guardiola. But before Messi got introduced to his magical
tiki-taka, it was time for the Olympic Games. It’s an odd competition, but still an interesting
one, it ends up working similarly to an under 23 tournament, with the exception that 3 players
over that age are allowed to participate, so Argentina added Riquelme, Mascherano, and
Pareja to their already strong squad and the outcome was a tremendous success. But the hardest part was getting Messi to
participate, see, the Olympic Games take place very shortly before the start of the season,
right at the time when Barcelona would take part in the Champions League playoffs and
so they not only didn’t allow Messi to go but made sure to take the Argentinian Federation
to court and won. So you probably ask yourself how it all changed? Pep Guardiola had not only taken part in the
games back in his time, but he was also a gold medalist, and understanding the value
that memory had for him, he convinced the club to let Messi go and what followed were
6 straight wins with Messi scoring 2 goals and getting himself an Olympic gold medal
as well. As for Barcelona, they still qualified. Back in Barcelona, now with Guardiola in command,
many things changed, despite being sort of a rookie coach at the time, Guardiola had
informed Deco and Ronaldinho that their services would no longer be necessary as he found their
bohemian lifestyle to be a bad influence on youngsters like Leo, even Eto’o would get
the same news, but would end up staying for one more year. Even though this news was met with some shock,
with them came the opportunity to offer Leo something that would become a symbol for the
rest of his career, the Barcelona number 10 shirt and with it Messi’s prime form had
been unlocked and we began witnessing what was the first few years of Messi’s most
frightening, awe-inspiring performances, the only negative aspect to all of this is that
Salvador Aparicio, president of Grandoli and Messi’s first ever coach died that year
and was never able to witness his old pupil rise to the top of the world. By December he totaled 25 goals in 20 matches,
but still, when the Ballon D’Or came around he managed only second place below Cristiano,
with the Champions League title making a big difference, but if that was so, Messi had
to take it from him and so he began working towards it. In his first half of the season, he had already
managed 8 goals and assists across 4 group stage matches, so it was just a matter of
keeping them coming. Over the last 16, Barcelona would trash Lyon
6 to 3 on aggregate, and with Henry and Eto’o taking center stage, with 6 goals and assists
between the two, Messi would settle for a single goal, but in his next performance,
Barcelona really needed him and that time, there was no such thing as settling. Barcelona met Bayern Munich for the quarter-finals,
9 minutes into the match, in a very similar play to that of the first goal in his El Classico
Hat Trick, Messi got the ball off of Samuel Eto’o and put it in the back of the net
with just two touches. Only 4 minutes later, Messi would return the
favor, completely mirroring the first goal as he assisted Eto’o.. Before the end of the first half, it was Henry’s
turn to get into the action, gifting Messi his second goal and then scoring a fourth
one to end the match. The toughest match of the campaign came against
Chelsea in the semi-finals, it was a long drawn out match, involving lots of controversial
referee decisions that are still talked about to this day, but that isn’t the focus of
this documentary, so we’ll leave them aside for now, what matters here is that at a certain
point it seemed Chelsea had figured out Barcelona, after a goalless draw at the Camp Nou, they
led 1 nil for nearly 90 minutes at the Bridge but in injury time, Messi found himself with
the opportunity to get Iniesta in shooting range from the edge of the box and so he let
go off the ball and what followed was a euphoric goal, with Iniesta taking off his shirt and
Guardiola running down the pitch, the memories kept stacking up for our young genius. After putting down a goal and assist in the
Copa Del Rey final to secure the domestic double, Messi had only the Champions League
final to beat in order to complete a seemingly perfect season, but if earlier I said he needed
to take the UCL Trophy from Ronaldo, fate would have it that it would be exactly him
who he would have to face in the final. If their first meeting was dull, this one
was one to remember. What ensued from the start was a clear battle
between the two, with both testing the keepers from far out on multiple occasions, regardless
the goal came early on from Samuel Eto’o and the rivalry that was in a way yet to start
would be settled as Leo took a page from Ronaldo’s book and scored a rare header to seal the
game for Barcelona. Messi was now a European champion, a treble
winner who, over the last season, had played 51 games and totaled 55 goal contributions,
being just 3 goals off of matching his tally across all of his first 4 seasons. This was the year of his break through into
all-timer status. To finally take home the Ballon D’Or all
he needed was a solid start to the season and though he slowed down a bit playing 22
more matches and being involved in 20 goals, he picked the perfect times to pull off perfect
performances, winning the Spanish Supercup, while scoring two goals, the European Supercup
while assisting the only goal and even the Club World Cup, scoring in both matches. When the ceremony came around, there was no
discussion, with more than double the points of second-place Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel
Messi was officially head and shoulders above everyone else, the best player in the world. But there was a catch behind all of this,
back at the beginning of the season, Real Madrid, perhaps intimidated by Barcelona’s
incredible football and Messi’s seemingly infinite potential, had gone and run it back,
pulling off what seemed like the second coming of Los Galacticos, signing both previous Ballon
D’Or winners, Ricardo Kaka and of course, Ronaldo. And if Kaka would have a hard time in Spain,
with Ronaldo sharing a league with Messi, the greatest rivalry in the history of the
sport was now about to take place and with Messi taking the Ballon D’Or, he had just
taken the first swing and it was one hell of a hit. After winning the biggest award in the sport,
some players feel they have done it all and begin slowing down but Messi went the complete
opposite way, he just kept getting better. Just one month after the award he dropped
his first hat trick of the season and while some were saying oh it’s just Tenerife,
Messi went on a streak, scoring for 5 matches in a row, including hat tricks against Zaragoza
and Valencia, totaling 11 goals in those 5 matches. The doubters were still there though, they
always are, and if this time around they were saying that he only does it in La Liga…. Messi pulled off one of the most incredible
performances of his career… After a first-leg draw, Arsenal went in front
at the Camp Nou with only 18 minutes on the clock, what followed was proof that at 5 foot
7, Messi was a weapon of mass destruction, if the first goal was like a missile, the
second was a cold dagger to the heart…. by the time the third came around it was like
Messi was just showing off, chipping the keeper in the most effortless of ways. By halftime, this was already one of the best
performances ever seen, but right before the final whistle Messi made sure to score his
fourth goal of the match, this one was just embarrassing, Messi wasn’t just toying with
their defenders, he was dancing on their grave. The next Champions League tie, saw Messi meet
another one of his future nemesis, Messi was about to meet Inter Milan and the man in charge
was José Mourinho, Barcelona were favorites but an incredible first leg performance by
Messi’s international teammate Diego Milito, saw them lose 3 to 1, the entire world had
to hold their breaths for a week as they awaited the second leg, everyone was having premonitions
of the beating Inter was bound to be on the receiving end off, after all back in 2010,
most thought Barcelona was pretty much unbeatable and with Inter reduced to 10 men right from
the beginning of the match, there weren’t many betting on them making it through, that
match is now remembered as Mourinho’s Airbus, as many said that parking the bus was an understatement,
he parked a whole airplane, if Barcelona played exciting attacking football, that day Mourinho
gathered his troops and played 90 minutes of the most pragmatic and defensively sound
football ever seen, Barcelona would only manage one goal and would be out of the competition. Messi seemed to be pissed off at this elimination,
and so, for the rest of the season, he scored in every single match… essential as Barcelona
barely edged it past Real Madrid as they won the league, but also essential in another
way, with these goals, Messi totaled 47 for the season, tieing Ronaldo o Fenomeno for
the most goals scored in a season by a Barcelona player. We were at the edge of what was bound to be
Messi’s prime and no one could wait to see how it went… Over the summer, Messi took part in the 2010
world cup, being coached by none other than Maradona, though many hoped this pairing would
bring argentina a lot of success, the tournament was a major disappointment, with Messi failing
to score a single goal and only getting one assist before Argentina was embarrassed in
a 4 nil defeat to Germany. Regardless, Messi made sure to be incredible
right from the start of the next season. Shockingly Barcelona had lost the first leg
of the Spanish Supercup 3 to 1 against Sevilla and so in the second leg, Messi did what only
he could, scoring a hat trick to ensure Barcelona wouldn’t start their season with a loss. All the way until December he seemed determined
to make sure that not winning the Champions League wouldn’t lead him to lose out on
the Ballon D’Or, every match seemed to have something special from him… over the first
22 matches of the season he had 38 goals and assists, I had to go back and check my stats
for this one, it’s that impressive, in just one match against Almeria, Messi was involved
in 5 goals and in another occasion, his two assists helped Barcelona beat Real by not
2, not 3 but 5 goals, incredible. No matter what anyone else had done that year,
when the voters were told to pick the best player in the world, the answer came naturally
and it was Lionel Messi, a Ballon D’Or winner yet again. To celebrate, he would begin 2011 with a hat
trick against Atletico de Madrid and a brace against Arsenal once again. In March he played Real Madrid 4 times in
the space of 17 days, and now they were coached by Mourinho. If Messi already had enough reason to be seeking
revenge from him, after drawing the first match and then losing the Copa Del Rey final
to him, he was probably willing to do anything to get it, so when they met for the Champions
League, after a goalless 77 minutes, first Messi put one in between Casillas’s legs
and then scored one of the best goals of his career to make it two, as the commentator
said: “Here goes Messi, away from 1, 2, 3 and 4, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful”. After a second leg draw, Barcelona was in
the final once more, the public had no doubt in their mind, Barcelona was the best team
of all time and Messi was at the center of it. They would go in front early, but even faster,
United would tie the match through Wayne Rooney, the tie was kept all the way till the second
half but then Messi, who of course couldn’t let the game pass without leaving his mark,
put Barcelona in front. Eventually, it would end 3 to 1, making Messi
an European Champion for the third time in his career at the age of only 23, if that
isn’t a prodigy, I don’t know what is. And so we arrive at the 2011/2012 season,
that year Messi didn’t win the league or the Champions League, to any other player
it would be pretty much impossible to say something like this, but still, that season
was easily one of the greatest of any player ever, maybe even Messi’s best despite the
lack of those two trophies… If so far his tally of goals and assists was
borderline unbelievable, this year had to be some sick joke, they say a season with
40 goals and assists is the standard for a great forward, Messi had 40 goals and assists
by November…. How can anyone possibly be that good at anything? Over the first half of the season, Messi got
3 goals and 2 assists in the Spanish Supercup against Real Madrid, 1 goal and 1 assist in
the European supercup, scored two in the final of the club world cup, winning every single
one of those tournaments and once again winning the Ballon D’Or, tieing Platini, Van Basten,
and Johan Cruyff as the player with the most Ballon D’Ors ever won. Over the turn of the year, he slowed down
a bit for around a month, but from there on out, he was somehow even better than during
the start of the season. In February, he scored 4 against Valencia,
in march he scored 5 against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League, which made him the
first player to score 5 in a knockout stage match. That same month, he got another hat trick
in the league making him Barcelona’s all-time top scorer at the age of only 23, but unfortunately
in April he failed to get a goal in either leg against Chelsea, and against all odds,
they were out of the Champions League, despite breaking several records. With 14 goals he even tied José Altafini
for the highest scoring champions league season of all time, the record had been untouched
for 45 years, besides that, with his 4th top scorer award, he tied Gerd Muller for the
player with the most of them, that record was 35 years old and to top it all off he
was also the top assist provider in the tournament, he could really do it all but somehow it hadn’t
been enough. Once again Messi seemed to be channeling his
anger right into the games that followed, getting a brace and 2 assists in the next
match against Rayo, then a hat trick against Malaga and a poker against Espanyol, totaling
9 goals in the 3 matches that followed his elimination and then ending the season by
scoring in the Copa Del Rey final and winning the tournament. At the start of the next season, there was
a huge change, Pep Guardiola had left Barcelona to enjoy a sabbatical year and his successor
was none other than Tito Vilanova, who had coached Messi when he was only 14 years old
and had previously worked as Guardiola’s right-hand man. Despite this pretty lateral change, some worried
that anything could be enough to disturb the seemingly delicate balance that had made Messi
the best in the world, but then the season started. At first, his streak of bad luck trophy-wise
would continue, losing the Spanish Supercup to Real Madrid, despite scoring one goal in
each leg, but then they immediately proved there was 0 reason to worry as long as Messi
lived. Under Vilanova, Barcelona would experience
their best start to a league season, totaling 55 points by the end of its first half, never
once losing and only once getting a draw. To achieve this, Messi scored or assisted
in everyone but two of those 19 matches, one stat that I can’t wrap my mind around is
that in the first 12 matches he scored in, he always got either a hat trick or 2 goals,
it seemed one wasn’t enough for the best in the world. By December he had finished the year with
91 goals, breaking yet another of Gerd Muller’s records, this time for the most goals ever
scored in a calendar year. This was the type of record that defines a
career, it should not be possible for someone to do this in modern football, but that year
Messi went above and beyond when it comes to goalscoring, even when compared to himself
he never achieved such numbers, in the second-best year of his career he scored only 60 and yes
I’m using the word only very loosely here. Of course, what I’m about to say is hard
to predict but this might become the longest-standing major record in the sport, I guess we will
see. Regardless of what he won or what he didn’t,
after a feat like this it was difficult for it to go any other way, as the year came to
an end Messi was yet again, the Ballon D’Or winner. But the month of December wasn’t one that
Messi would remember fondly, that same month, his coach Tito Vilanova, with whom Messi had
a very close relationship, relapsed, having been diagnosed with cancer about a year before. He immediately went into surgery and spent
the next 6 weeks in therapy, with his assistant coach taking over. Vilanova was only able to come back to the
bench in March, by this time Barcelona had gone through 10 league matches without him
and drawn 2 matches and lost another 2, in a way tainting the impressive record they
kept under Vilanova. During his absence they also got knocked out
of the Copa Del Rey and nearly suffered the same fate in the Champions League, losing
2 nil to AC Milan before a second leg 4 nil comeback inspired by Messi who scored 2 of
those 4. Back with Vilanova, Barcelona faced PSG but
Messi would come out injured after having already scored the opener. Playing through injury in the second leg,
Messi nearly watched Barcelona be knocked out, but yet another draw saw them go through
on away goals. It was a struggle over these months but still,
it wasn’t over yet. With Messi still struggling with his injury,
Barcelona lost 4 nil to Bayern in the first leg and then 3 nil as Messi missed the game
through injury yet again. As what might be the only positive takeaway
from this moment, Messi kept scoring in the league, despite the injury, totaling an impressive
record of 21 consecutive games with at least one goal, breaking the all-time goalscoring
record of any league in the world. Over this streak, he managed 33 goals, lasting
for most of the league season, where he only failed to score or assist twice. Besides this, Barcelona also drew only one
match after Tito’s comeback and finished the season with a league record of 100 points,
imagine what could have been had Tito Vilanova never relapsed. The lowest low was yet to come though, as
Vilanova acknowledged that his treatment was affecting the squad and made the decision
of stepping down as head coach. Gerardo Martino took over, coming from Messi’s
childhood team, Newell’s Old Boys. Besides the new coach, Neymar, who was the
second piece of the trio that would eventually conquer the world, also joined the club but
still that season would be sort of a disaster, with Messi going through 4 injuries that saw
him miss a total of 12 matches. The Spanish press took this moment to begin
talking about what they called Messidependencia which referred to the team’s dependence
on Messi’s brilliance to get good results. By December Messi had only scored 15 goals,
which saw him finally relinquishing the Ballon D’Or after 4 consecutive wins, finishing
2nd place this time around. Over the second half of the season, Messi
seemed to be getting back to his best but around April, 3 consecutive defeats saw Barcelona
get knocked out of the Champions League, losing the Copa Del Rey final to Real, and drop to
third place in the table after being only 1 point off of leaders Atletico. To further impact the team’s morale about
a week later, it was announced that after months of fighting cancer, Tito Vilanova had
passed away. Still, a sequence of favourable results, saw
Barcelona with the opportunity to take the league on the last day of the season as they
faced leaders Atletico De Madrid. Even though Messi assisted the opener, unfortunately,
the game ended in a draw, becoming the climax of a wave of discontent shown by the fans
towards Messi, who would boo him after the match ended as they believe his lower output
than usual was a strategy to save himself for the upcoming world cup. This whole mess nearly led Messi to leave
Barcelona for Mourinho’s Chelsea and it would probably have happened had it not been
for Vilanova, who 6 days before his death, heard about the possibility of Messi’s departure
and met with him, talking for hours with Messi and asking him not to leave the club he loved
so dearly, in a way it was almost like his dying wish for Leo to stay. In the World Cup, Messi finally got to play
with Argentina again, after a disappointing quarter-final exit in 2011. This squad had lots of superstar forwards,
from Di Maria to Higuain, Aguero, Lavezzi, and of course Messi but they didn’t have
the most reputable names in defense, which was worrying and so in the group stage, despite
conceding 1 goal per game on average, Messi managed 4 goals all by himself, sending his
nation onto the knockouts regardless. Once there, they experienced a strangely tough
match against Switzerland, only winning in extra time as Messi assisted Di Maria. From there on out, they kept struggling but
making it through, first beating Belgium with an early goal from Higuain and then beating
the Netherlands on penalties as they made it to the final. There they faced Germany who had already beaten
Brazil 7 to 1 and Portugal 4 nil, they were a scary sight, but with Messi among your squad,
there’s always hope. Regardless, the final followed the same profile
as the previous matches, being a long drawn out and seemingly goalless match until Gotze
found the back of the net in extra time and turned Germany into World Champions. After the match, Messi was handed the Golden
Ball award for the best player in the tournament, though I’m sure it wasn’t enough to satisfy
Messi after coming so close to the most sought after trophy in the world of football. Given the poor results at Barcelona, Luis
Enrique, who had been among Messi’s teammates in his friendly debut against Porto, took
over the squad and brought in the final piece of the puzzle, Luis Suarez. With MSN now in full form, there was no stopping
Barcelona. Over the first half, Messi became the all-time
scorer in La Liga, beating Telmo Zarra who had held the record for nearly 60 years, despite
some transfer talks at one point, Messi was now more than happy at the club. Messidependencia was no more, with Suarez
and Neymar, not only did the team have other players capable of making the difference in
the final third but Messi was now finding spaces on the pitch more easily, as defenders
were forced to distribute their efforts between the 3 players and furthermore now whenever
Messi didn’t find a way to shoot himself he could always let it go to someone who was
just as capable. The result of all of this was some of the
most impressive numbers of Messi’s career. Before the end of October he had already hit
double digits in assists, starting in November, he scored 3 hat tricks in just 4 matches…
and 3 more came in the 3 months that followed. Once into the knockout stages, we got to see
that Messi had indeed finally found teammates worthy of his greatness as Barcelona would
make it past City and PSG, despite Messi not scoring in either match, though he did provide
two assists. The semi finals would be Messi’s most notorious
performance that year. Barcelona had just scored 14 goals in the
previous two matches in the league and now they had to face Bayern Munich, hopes were
high but once they got there, it quickly became noticeable that things wouldn’t be that
easy. As the clock approached the 80 minute mark,
the match was still settled at a goalless draw, with Neuer getting the better of MSN...
but then the genius was unleashed…. In between two players from outside the box,
Messi threads the needle and it’s 1 nil. Only 3 minutes later, a great trough pass
by Rakitic, leaves Messi with only Boateng to beat and it makes up for one of the most
iconic moments of his career as Boateng collapsed on the floor as an incredible feint by Messi
left him struggling to keep up and then a chip over Neuer sealed the deal… Incredible. To put the cherry on top, in the last play
of the match as Bayern tried their hardest to get one back, Messi got the ball and spotted
Neymar with an opportunity to take advantage of their high block and alone with Neuer he
put it in between his legs, 3 nil and done. In the second match, Neymar would take the
spotlight, scoring twice as Bayern actually managed to pull 3 goals back. After this, Messi would score 5 goals in 3
matches, sealing both the league titles and the copa del rey. To complete yet another treble, all he needed
was to win the Champions League final against Juventus and only 4 minutes in, the unlikely
hero saved the day, Rakitic had scored the opener. Eventually Juve would get one back, but Suarez
and Neymar would both score as Barcelona went on to lift the trophy. The trio finished the season with 122 goals
between them, a record in Spanish football. Out of those nearly half came from Messi,
who totalled 87 goal and assists in 58 matches that season, the numbers just keep on coming. During the summer, Messi got his third attempt
at the Copa America and he nearly did it, despite only being involved in one goal up
till the semi final, once there Messi was incredible, assisting 3 goals in a single
match to get Argentina a spot alongside Chile in the final. But there was one drawback, Chile were playing
at home. Argentina were still the favourites but you
can’t underestimate the power of home advantage. The match would not be a thriller by any means,
going onto penalties before a single goal would be registered on the score sheet. There, Messi was the only player to convert
his chance and Argentina finished as runners-up yet again. Messi was so distraught that he refused to
take the MVP award, with it not being attributed to anyone. The following season was a mixed bag that
would hint at what was to come over the following years. In the first match of the season, Messi performed
excellently, scoring 2 in the European Supercup which would be a 9 goal thriller that saw
Barcelona go behind, only to go 3 goals in front and lose the lead again, to eventually
win it in extra time. Then the Spanish supercup saw a shocking 4
nil defeat to Bilbao and early into the season an injury saw Messi miss 9 matches. By the turn of the year, Messi had only 12
goals, but having won the club world cup that same month, which was his fifth trophy of
the year and with an appearance in a Copa America final, there was no doubt in the Ballon
D’Or, Messi was once again the best player in the world, getting his 5th award. Over the first few months of the second half
of the season, Messi began playing a lot better, getting 3 hat tricks and even assisting Suarez
from a penalty kick, a strange moment that was later reveal to have an endearing back
story, the idea came as a tribute to Johan Cruyff, who used to perform that same penalty
routine back in his day and was now battling lung cancer. When asked about it, Cruyff said he was very
emotional to see it being done replicated.. Then came a period of poor form by Messi,
that saw Barcelona win only 1 of 6 matches, reminding everyone that the famous Messidependencia
wasn’t something the club had fully recovered from, especially as it led to their elimination
from the Champions League. Messi finished the season with a massively
important 12 goals and assists in 7 matches, winning the Copa Del Rey and making sure Barcelona
didn’t slip to second place in the league as they finished a mere point in front of
Real. From here on out, Barcelona began struggling
more than they ever had over Messi’s career and for a few years Messi was left with two
tasks, to win a tournament with Argentina and to keep his beloved club afloat. Right from the summer that followed, Messi
got another opportunity to get to the top with Argentina as the Copa America was played
out once more to celebrate its 100 year anniversary. Things started going wrong when Messi suffered
a back injury and missed the opening match against Chile. Following this he was benched against Panama
and as the public began worrying for his fitness, Messi came in with 29 minutes left on the
clock and somehow scored a hat trick. It was time to get to business. After another match on the bench, Messi played
the quarter finals against Venezuela and not only did he score but he also got two assists…
the next match, they met the USA and once again, one goal and 2 assists for Messi, who
by now was averaging a goal contribution every 28 minutes in the competition, I can’t stress
this enough, 1 every 90 is great, 1 every 50 is insane, 1 every 28 minutes?! well….. that’s Lionel Messi. With performances like this, this time had
to be it, this was to be the tournament where Messi brought glory to Argentina, what followed
was much different though, it was perhaps the biggest heartbreak of his career, once
again no goals would be seen, and a penalty shootout would ensue… Messi would miss and eventually as Biglia
missed as well, Argentina were runners up for the 4th time in Leo’s career. After the match, Messi would be in tears,
absolutely heartbroken like we had never seen him, the words that followed shook the entire
nation. At a mere 28 years of age, Messi announced
his retirement from the national team. Argentina could not let this happen, so everyone
got to work, at the airport the fans chanted “Don’t go Leo”, the president personally
contacted him and gave a public speech saying Leo was the best thing the argentinians had,
the mayor of Buenos Aires unveiled a statue in his honor, the people were gathering by
the thousands to protest his decision, it was apparent to everyone that the people of
Argentina would move mountains to get him back and so only about 2 weeks after it was
confirmed, a full U-turn and Messi was in the team sheet for the upcoming world cup
qualifiers, it just had to be done, Messi could not go on without the albiceleste. Given the start of the season, it’s hard
to believe that 2016/2017 would be one of the most disappointing seasons in Messi’s
career, but it was. 16 matches in, La Pulga had 26 goals and assists,
among them a hat trick against Man City, Messi had scored in every group stage match he had
played in, totalling an astonishing, unbelievable 10 goals in 5 matches. But then it all crumbled and it crumbled fast,
as first it seemed they would be out in the round of 16, but in one of the most unbelievable
comebacks ever seen, Barcelona made it back from a 4 nil defeat to PSG, but then unfortunately
Juventus gave them no chance, winning 3 nil on aggregate as Messi finished the knockout
stage with only 1 goal to his name, it truly happens to the best of us. La Liga was out of their reach as well that
season and the only bit of hope would come as Messi scored and assisted in the final
of the Copa Del Rey for what was their only trophy besides the supercup. But that wasn’t even the worst part of it
all, this season saw Neymar leave and the return of Messidependencia and boy oh boy
it was coming like never before. Right from the bat, the season started with
two defeats to Real Madrid, then followed by a hat trick against Espanyol, 2 against
Juventus and 4 against Eibar, Messi was clearly blowing off some steam. By November, he signed the ill fated contract
that would lead to his tumultuous exit from the club, in it was a clause that would enter
the history books, 700 million was the price for anyone who might have wanted to take Messi
away from Barcelona. The season played out smoothly, Messi kept
maintaining his own standard of greatness. As he met Chelsea in the Champions League
last 16 round, he would be involved in every single one of the 4 goals Barcelona scored
and if that wasn’t enough to demonstrate the dependance the team had in him, the following
round against Roma, Messi would have a lower quality performance and without him, the team
wasn’t even able to hold on to a 3 goal lead, being knocked out after Roma performed
the comeback. Once again the season would end with a great
performance by Messi giving the club the Copa Del Rey, but at least this time around the
league was theirs once more. The world cup in the summer wasn’t about
to lift up anyone’s mood either, the situation seemed ever so dire for Leo who would watch
Argentina struggle past their group and then get knocked out by France, despite Leo’s
two assists. The next season was a carbon copy of the one
before it, Messi regularly dropping great performances, Barcelona topping the league
table, they play Lyon for the Last 16 round of the UCL and Messi is involved in 4 goals,
then scores twice against Man City to keep them in the tournament, then 2 against Liverpool
in the first leg of the semi final, but as soon as he has an off day, Barcelona goes
down and loses 4 nil to Liverpool, somehow conceding a massive comeback yet again. To make it all worse, this time around Messi’s
goal in the Copa Del Rey final isn’t even enough to get them the trophy and over summer,
Argentina would go down to Brazil in the semi finals of the Copa America. Despite playing among all this chaos, Messi
rose above it all, finishing the year with a nearly divine 77 goal contributions in 54
matches and despite Van Dijk having won the UEFA Player Of the Year award, Messi’s numbers
were just too impressive, given his struggling squad and so he was awarded with his 6th Ballon
D’Or, double the number anyone had accumulated before his debut. The second half of the season would be a mess
though, with the pandemic coming in between, Messi would only get 16 goals throughout it,
going out of the champions league in what was by far the toughest defeat of his career,
8-2 to Bayern Munich, finishing the season without a single trophy and getting only 31
goals, his worst tally since he was a teenager. Barcelona was going through an absolute meltdown,
there was no way of hiding it anymore. Following this, Messi sent a fax to the club’s
board announcing his wish to leave the club. It was time, the king of Barcelona had ruled
and served his people for longer than anyone would have expected, he had survived it all
and was now willingly stepping off the throne. After all, Messi had an option in his contract
that he believed would allow him to leave the club at the end of the season, but that’s
when things got serious. Barcelona claimed that the pandemic had delayed
the end of the season and so now the dates determined in the contract had expired and
Messi was no longer allowed to leave as he pleased, only being available for the release
clause of 700 million euros. The press coverage was wild, it was the hottest
scandal football had had in a while, club’s were running in circles trying to make sure
that if Messi was available for transfer they would have money in hand, but once Messi was
told the only way to solve the situation was to go to court with Barcelona he said he “could
never do that to the club of his life” and so, against his wishes, he stayed for one
more season. Since the success with Luis Enrique, Barcelona
had employed Valverde and then Setien who was now gone and replaced with club legend
Ronald Koeman, but his time in the club would be equally as grim. Messi was clearly unmotivated and just counting
the days until he left, still an unmotivated Messi was easily the best player in the team
and even that season had its highlights, from Messi meeting Ronaldo 3 years after he left
La Liga to 2 goals in the final of the Copa Del Rey. Messi finished the season with only 38 goals
and finished it without scoring a single hat trick for the first time since his second
professional season. On the first of July, it was made public that
Messi’s contract had officially run out and that he was now a free agent. In August Barcelona had managed to once again
reach a deal with Messi, but given their inability to sign any new players due to a wage gap
imposed by the league, they were not able to seal it. Four days later in a tearful farewell, the
king of Barcelona took the stands to for one last time wave his people goodbye. After 21 years, shy little Leo finally left
Barcelona and left behind the shadow of a giant, who led the club to their most memorable
era. I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy to
be the one who’ll have to try and fill his shoes, because if his boots were small, the
void he left in every fan’s heart is immense. With 778 matches, scoring 672 goals, 5 golden
boots, 6 Ballon D’Ors, winning 34 titles with FC Barcelona, Lionel Messi is simply
unmatchable. But it doesn’t end here for La Pulga, the
day after his farewell, a move to PSG was announced, completely breaking the internet,
Messi in another kit looked nearly sacrilegious, but at least it will be fun to watch as it
has always been, with the number 30 now on his back once again, who knows what could
happen. After all the last few months have been hopeful,
over the last weeks of Summer, Messi joined Argentina yet again for the Copa America and
it was probably his best tournament to date, right from the start, 5 goals in 4 group stage
matches, gave Argentina a boost. Then he started the knockouts in the same
fashion, assisting two and scoring another against Ecuador and then assisting the only
goal against Columbia, as Argentina made it to the final on penalties. In the final, despite Brazil dominating the
match, with more than double the shots taken, it seems it simply was time that Messi fulfilled
his dream as the sole goal by Di Maria would make them Champions. As the final whistle was heard, the players
rushed towards Messi, it meant a lot to every single one of them, but to Messi it meant
a lot more. Seeing him finally win the trophy was something
that arrived at the perfect time, a time of transition, a time when the world awaited
to see…. What was next for Lionel Messi.
