778 games, 672 goals, 288 assists. Those numbers simply aren’t human numbers – they’re Messi numbers. On the 16th of October 2004, football changed forever, as Frank Rijkaard gave a 17 year-old Lionel Messi his Barcelona debut.
The biggest criticism Messi faced as a player was his lack of International success with Argentina. But in the summer of 2021, Messi exorcised those demons and led Argentina to a Copa America trophy, leading the goals and assist charts in a spectacular tournament for the little man.
What Legacy will Leo Messi leave behind at Barcelona?
As Pep Guardiola once said: “Don’t write about him. Don’t try to describe him. Just watch him.”
And despite all of Messi’s incredible stats and honours, only those who watch him will appreciate what he does, and how he does it.
He makes the impossible look ordinary, and he defies everything we thought we knew about the boundaries in football.
Lionel Messi has created an unreplicable legacy, and whilst he will continue on with PSG, his time as Barcelona coming to a close almost signals that the end is near for football’s greatest ever player.
Maradona, Pele, Cruyff, Zidane, these names will always be known as footballing greats, but Messi is on his own level; a level that will never be reached, and with achievements that will never be repeated.
Let us be incredibly grateful that we were put on this Earth at the same time as this little Argentine magician.
Thank you Leo Messi, for reshaping our standards of world class football, for shocking us, stunning us, getting us off our seats, dropping our jaws, and for making us believe that the impossible is indeed possible.
In the words of Arsene Wenger, “he’s not an athlete, he’s an artist”.
Thank you, Leo.