The footballing world changed completely in 2000 when Barcelona’s Technical Secretary Charly Rexach scouted a little boy from Rosario and gave him his first contract on a paper napkin and it became one of the most historic piece of paper in sporting history. It was none other than Lionel Andres Messi who decided to join Barcelona’s youth academy ‘La Masia’ to nourish his skills. The club decided to take care of all the medical expenses of Messi who was then suffering from a Hormonal disorder (GHD).
Messi repaid the trust of the Catalan club and went on to become arguably the greatest player to ever play the game. He displayed sheer loyalty to the Barca jersey as his tears were evidence of his love for the club which he shed when he was forced to leave due to the financial crisis in Barcelona.
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He was just 17 when former Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard decided to bring him as a substitute La Liga clash against Albacete at Camp Nou. It was the 87th minute of the game when star striker Samuel Eto’o was subbed-off for a 17-year-old wonder kid. Within four minutes after Messi’s arrival on the pitch, Ronaldinho, who was Barca’s star man at that time, went past the defenders with his brilliant skills and gave a lobbed pass to him and the young kid effortlessly chipped it over goalkeeper Valbuena to score his first goal at senior level.
He went on to score 672 goals in the Blaugrana jersey and won every major trophy with the club. He won 10 La Liga titles, 4 UEFA Champions League, 7 Copa del Rey, 3 Club World Cup, 3 European Super Cup and 8 Spanish Super Cup with the club and his departure marked an end of a great era.
It was 2021 when Messi’s world went upside down within a month. He won the first major trophy with Argentina in form of Copa America on July 11 and the whole world was talking about his greatness. He was ready to sign a new contract with Barcelona after his tussle with the old management which made him want to leave the club a year back in 2020. The Argentine forward was elated after Copa America’s success but then came one of the most difficult days of his and every Barcelona fan life as on August 5, Barcelona announced through a press release that they won’t be able to give Messi a new contract.
He left the club in tears in 2021 after Barcelona failed to find a way to give him a new contract due to La Liga’s FFP rules as the club was in a financial crisis. Thousands of fans were outside Camp Nou to thank him for all he had done for the club but he wasn’t able to say them a proper goodbye.
Messi joined French giants Paris Saint-Germain to reunite with his former Barcelona teammate Neymar Jr. He had few Argentine friends at the club at that time – Leonardo Paredes and Angel di Maria which was also the key reason behind him preferring a move to Paris.
He was welcomed at the French capital with open arms as the fans came in massive numbers at the airport to welcome him.
In the 2021 summer transfer window, PSG decided to assemble, probably a dream team for every football fanatic. They signed Georginio Wijnaldum, Achraf Hakimi, Gianluigi Donnarumma and the captains of the two biggest clubs in Europe – Lionel Messi (Barcelona) and Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid). Out of the five signings, four of them were free transfers.
Mauricio Pochettino was the manager of PSG’s ambitious project which also had Kylian Mbappe and Neymar Jr to help Messi in the front. He won his record-extending seventh Ballon d’Or a few months after joining the club.
The Argentine was on cloud nine and the footballing world predicted that PSG’s wait for a UCL trophy will finally end with Messi’s arrival. Unfortunately for PSG, things didn’t pan out well for them. Messi had a rusty start to the season as he struggled a bit to get settled in the new city and club. Messi mentioned it on numerous occasions that it was tough time for him and his family to move out of Barcelona and start a new life in Paris.
His numbers on the field weren’t good enough for his standards the world started criticising him and touted him as a flop in Paris after the French giants were knocked out of round of 16 in the Champions League in March 2022.
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The UCL exit meant a horror start for Messi this year but it ended with the biggest trophy of all in his hands – World Cup.
Messi was jeered by the PSG Ultras at Parc des Princes during the clash against Bordeaux after UCL exit and it was the first first time he was witnessing something like this happening to him from the home fans. He was the most loved player at Barcelona and the fans always hailed him as a Demi-God at Camp Nou. However, things went upside down for him in March.
PSG and Pochettino failed to take advantage of having Messi in their squad. He was criticized heavily this season for walking on the pitch when the opposition was having possession. The Argentine has played the same way in his entire footballing career and it’s quite difficult for anyone to change that in just a season. With him joining the club, many predicted that Pochettino will change the playing style but he didn’t as the team looked disorganized on the pitch with Messi, Mbappe and Neymar doing inferior work without the ball as compared to others which led to their downfall.
The club parted ways with Pochettino after the season and Christophe Galtier took over the charge at Parc des Princes. Things started better for Messi after Galtier’s arrival as he was more settled in Paris and the new coach’s tactics also allowed him to play freely on the pitch.
With the new mantra, Galtier took advantage of having the most destructive trio in world football at present. MNM started firing for PSG and it was Messi who started running the show for the club. He adapted to his new role as more of a playmaker on the side which was throughout his career but this time it’s his primary job.
He has already netted 12 goals and provided 14 assists this season which helped him enter the World Cup with a lot of confidence.
However, it was not an ideal start for Messi once again at the World Cup as Argentina were stunned by Saudi Arabia in their first group stage match. The 35-year-old scored the opening goal of the match in the first half but Argentine defenders had a lapse of concentration in the starting 10 minutes of the second half and Saudi took complete advantage of it by scoring two quick goals. Several fans started doubting Messi and Argentina after the defeat but they bounced back emphatically to script history.
“It’s a very hard blow because we did not expect to start in this way. We expected to get the three points that would have given us calmness. My message to the supporters is to have faith. We won’t leave them stranded,” Messi assured when Argentina lost to Saudi Arabia in their first match of the showpiece.
They weren’t empty words from the GOAT as he took the onus on himself from the next match onwards with a magnificent goal against Mexico. He did put up a show against Poland too despite missing a penalty.
Before Qatar 2022, Messi was often mocked for his zero goals in World Cup knockouts and he silenced his critics by switching on his GOD mode as he scored goals in every knockout match this time. He became the first ever player to score goals in the round of 16, quarterfinal, semifinal and final in a single edition of the World Cup.
The stakes were sky high in the finale and Messi rose on the occasion once again and scored a brace as Argentina lifted the trophy after beating France on penalties. He fulfilled his childhood dream and completed football by winning the World Cup. He settled all the debates after getting his hands on the World Cup trophy.
The triumph has put him on an elite list as he has completed football by winning all the possible trophies – league title, league cup, UEFA Champions League, Copa America and the biggest of them all – World Cup.
However, he might have achieved it quite early in his career when former Spanish coach Vicente del Bosque tried hard to convince him to play for La Roja.
“I tried everything to get Messi to play for Spain. However, Lionel refused because of the love he has for his country,” he told Radio Marca.
Del Bosque guided Spain to the World Cup title in 2010 and Messi would have been part of it enjoying massive success with his club teammates Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol and Sergio Busquests but he wanted to win it for Argentina and its people who last won the WC in 1986 before this year.
The 35-year-old came extremely close to lifting the trophy in 2014 but Germany’s Mario Gotze snatched it from him in the extra time at Brazil’s World Cup final. Several photos of gutted Messi went viral from that final as he received the Player of the tournament trophy but it was quite visible that he didn’t care much about that because he failed to achieve his childhood dream at that time.
This time he had both trophies in his arms Golden Ball and the Golden FIFA World Cup trophy as the whole of Argentina celebrated the massive triumph for days and Messi etch his name in history as the Greatest of All Time.
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