Lionel Messi: Ascending to Greatness

the story began with curiosity and passion for ball and turned into a story of a great talent stuck in a limited body striving to prove himself and his abilities it's a story of mental and physical development together a story of a young man who wants to please his countrymen after leaving them to achieve his dreams this is the story of the beginning of Messi's career and how he ascended to the top of football [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] in the province of Santa Fe particularly in the city of Rosario Lionel Messi started

his footballing career at a very young age he always played with his older brothers Rodrigo and Matthias and at five years of age he played with the local Grand Ole youth team and despite his age you can already see his change of pace and great dribbling skills and usually coaches at that level would emphasize passing the ball but nobody told that to Messi Lionel played almost two years at grandoli and they won all their matches and in every training session Lionel was disciplined and reserved Gonzalo Diaz a teammate of Lionel at grandoli said that there

were many talented players that played at the club but they lacked the perseverance and training his father Jorge had a say in this his philosophy was simple work hard be persistent and show humility and you can achieve your goal rules Jorge was also devouring his sons daily with VHS tapes of Maradona and was Leo's second coach in grandal as well the writer game balaguez said in his biography about Messi that his father was his number one Idol he was his mentor hero and he had absolute trust in him Jorge was also the person who decided

to transfer Leo to one of Argentina's big clubs Noel's old boys Lionel was a key part of what was later called The Machine of 87 an unbeatable youth site one of the players fathers mentioned that Messi scored approximately 100 calls per season which also meant that Leo had scored almost 500 goals with the team between 1994 to 2000 but there was an issue at the age of 10 leonel's parents decided to consult a specialist after the advice of one of newel's directors they noticed that Lionel was smaller than the other kids as he was about

10 centimeters shorter than the average Kid at his age group they went to Dr Diego schwarnstein in January of 1997 and the diagnosis took about six months to determine Leo's problem partial growth hormone deficit so Lionel had to inject himself every day with the biosynthetic growth hormone starting from January of 98 and it was not cheap it costed the Missy family between 1000 to 1 500 and a month fortunately for his father Jorge he worked for a state-owned steel company so insurance covered the treatment's cost for the first two years but Argentina's economy was collapsing

in the late 1990s and after the insurance stopped covering the treatment Jorge was struggling to make ends meet he went to old boys for support as the club president Sergio almiron sent funds to Jorge on a monthly basis but the amounts varied Jorge was asking for more but there was no response from the club he tried pressuring the club by taking Lionel for a trial at River Plate Noel's tried to solve the problem immediately but in the end they just couldn't bear the full cost of the treatment everything was pushing Jorge towards making a very

difficult decision at that time numerous Argentinian families were fleeing the country for a better life after the economic disaster young footballers within big Argentinian clubs were considered assets and ways to liquidate and for Jorge and his son Lionel it was well worth the risk [Music] after the trial with River an agent called Horacio gagioli was informed of Messi's talents he had a relationship with the prestigious Catalan agent Joseph mangela who was very close to Barcelona and was responsible for maradona's transfer to the blaugrana in 1982. Horacio asked for tapes of Lionel from Jorge and sent

them to mengele's office then Mengele talked to his friend and then Barca sporting director Carla strikshak and insisted on setting up a trial for Lionel Jorge and his son Leonel flew to Barcelona in 2000 for the trials and in each session Lionel gave it his all and was impressive but there was no decision from the club when rexaj came back from the Olympics he had the chance to see Messi at the end of his trial he was convinced and thought that Barcelona had to sign the youngster immediately but there were some doubts inside the clip

no one wanted to Bear the responsibility of a family that risked everything and left their home for this this opportunity and success was not guaranteed and there were no guarantees that all the costs behind signing Lionel would be repaid on the field so Jorge and his son Leo went back to Argentina in the beginning of October after missing way too many school days many factors resulted in Barcelona stalling the signing of Messi first Lionel was a small foreign boy was only 13 years old and La macia directors at that time preferred local players who were

around 15 or even 16 years of age second Barcelona had to find his father some work in accordance with FIFA regulations which banned any signing of foreign players under 18 unless he was accompanied by a parent Jorge also asked tulipu the sun in an apartment outside of La macia's campus third Barcelona was struggling with several first-team issues after their Superstar Figo had left so signing a 13 year old Foreigner was not one of their priorities especially with all the costs attached to Messi from hormone treatment to private accommodation after two months had passed without a

response from Barcelona and with Jorge getting more frustrated by the minute rexage came up with a solution to calm things down with the presence of mangela and Horizon rexacha de Pompeo Tennis Club Carlos signed a napkin and he wrote on that napkin that he was committed to the signing of Messi as per the previously agreed figures and regardless of opinions on the contrary that last phrase is crucial as it points to some board members who are against the idea of signing Lionel and all the various costs attached to the youngster it was an important step

before signing the first official contract and in January of 2001 all parties agreed on the signing after President John graspar gave his final nod on all of Jorge and Messi's requests including the hormone treatment Jorge and Lionel took their first big step towards achieving their goals but there were still some difficulties Leonel broke his left fibula and only his second match and when he came back two months later he had an ankle injury straight away and Leo's mother had to go back to Argentina as living in Catalonia was proving to be difficult for his brothers

and his little sister it was a tough period for Lionel that made him rethink his future either he goes back with his family to Argentina or split his family and stay with his father in Barcelona but he insisted on staying and was determined to achieve his dream finally the focus was Back to Football [Music] foreign football and mental terms Lionel was evolving very quickly in Barcelona's various age groups and then physical terms Lionel was significantly growing in front of the coach's eyes as he grew 29 centimeters in a few months he had a fantastic attitude

towards training and had only football to look forward to as he was alone with his father away from his friends and family in a foreign city and in a foreign land it was a tough situation but that kept him focused only on playing football in the 2001-2002 season Lionel played in the famous Junior B Team alongside names such as fabrias and Gerard Pique That season also saw the young manager Tito Villanova taking over the team in The Following season and under the Coach Alex Garcia Lionel started to truly shine as he played in every match

and was the top goal scorer of the team Garcia used to experiment with Messi in many different positions within the lineup but Leo preferred to play centrally behind the striker and not stuck on the wings that team won every single title at hand and despite the weak scouting system in 2003 compared to today that Cadet a side attracts some eyes one of them was Arsenal's representative in Spain Francis gagigaw was astonished by Messi's talents and connected with his father Jorge arsenal were the first European Club to send Leo an offer since he arrived in Barcelona

but too many obstacles made the signing difficult but despite that Arsenal succeeded in signing fabrias as the youth side thrived in Barcelona the first team was in dire crisis the return of Van Hal was considered a failure and the new signings flocked as the blograna ended the season with their worst league position in 15 years barsa President John Gaspar resigned and Fresh Faces entered The Fray it was a new era for Barcelona and this new board and management were aware of the many talents within the club as Lionel Messi signed a new contract until 2012

with a buyout Cross of 30 million euros which increases to 80 million euros if he got into the barsa B Squad and 150 million euros if he managed to get into the first team and the 2003-2004 season Messi played in 37 matches what's fascinating About That season was his meteor cries between the ranks he started that season with the under-19 B-side in August then played some matches for the a side of the same age group and that caught the attention of first team manager Frank Reichert who was in need of youth players to fill the

squad for a mid-season friendly against Portu for the opening of their new daragao stadium in November most of the first team players left for international Duty as Messi W to do their first team in the 75th minute at the age of 16 years and 145 days wearing the number 14 shirt when he came back from that friendly he immediately played with the barsa seaside for the first time 11 matches were enough to promote him once again to play for the bars of east side and the final stretch of that season season Messi was alternating between

all of these age groups excluding the first team whenever any age group in Barcelona was struggling That season they would ask Messi for support and to help them win either by playing with players of his age or with players 4 years older than him as was the case in the barsabi side which played in the third division of the Spanish league his father Jorge recalls suddenly we went from nothing to everything we had dreamed of when Messi stopped his hormone treatment at 14 years of age barsa's staff made him a special training regime to focus

on his physical strength and speed by increasing his lower body muscle mass and the change was clear but despite debuting with the first team at 16 years of age Lionel had to wait a while before returning to reichardt's side again that first team was restructuring under new stars like Deco Ito ronaldinhu and Chavi that's why in the 2004-2005 season Leo was a permanent starter for the barsa B site reichardt was aware of and talked to his father about his extraordinary attributes but he wanted them to have some patience as he waited for the right time

to use him Leo started taking part in first team training sessions as Barca left back Giovanni van Broncos said that Ronaldo new mentioned in Messi's first training session that he's going to be better than him but the reality was that Messi was not ready he played for barsabi who played in the third division on top of that he played in a 3-4-3 system as almost a second Striker and despite the insistence of the coaches on Leo staying on the wings the Argentine love to dribble inside with the ball towards the central areas the specific role

doesn't have a place within the 433 system that the first team used it was also very rare in those days for a 16 year old or 17 year old to feature with the first team in official matches but as days had passed and with each training session with the first team the doubt started to disappear and almost a year after his debut against Porto reicherts of the Messi and the 82nd minute in a tough match against neighbors espanol it was not a change to appease the fans and win them over the Argentine was asked to

impact the match at 17 years and four months Messi became the youngest parsa player at that time to play in an official match Messi continued the season alternating between the first and second team despite being on the bench most of the time he gained a lot of experience just by being around professional players either inside or outside the pitch or London was one of the players that had a big impact on Messi as he gained his trust quickly and became like a big brother to him along with Deco selvinu and Mota with Barcelona closing in

on a league title Messi got another chance as he came on as a substitute in the 88th minute against albachetti with two minutes left Ronaldo new found him on two occasions the first was called offside which seemed incorrect on the second try Messi succeeded in scoring his first of many goals for Barcelona Barcelona won their first league title in five years as Messi played only 70 minutes overall in La Liga and also got his debut in the Champions League and played 90 minutes against Ukraine inside shakhtar Donetsk in the summer of 2005 Messi competed to

the Argentine national team in the under-20 world cup despite the many attempts of the Spanish Federation and tying Lionel to the Spanish national team there was no doubt about his loyalty to Argentina the world was amazed by Messi's performance and the tournament as he scored six goals in total and two goals in the final against the Nigerian national team Leonel was named player of the tournament after Argentina won the final and Nike aired an advertisement that reflected Lionel's rise within the world of football and its message was simple the 2005-2006 season looked to be the

season where Messi would shine in the European stage but there were some hiccups on the way the Argentine national team coach Jose packerman wanted to reward Messi for his fantastic performance in the Summer with the senior debut against Hungary and a friendly match in August of 2005. but his first appearance with the national team didn't go as planned [Music] [Applause] shortly after the Spanish Football Federation suddenly classified Messi as a foreign non-european player despite him completing the required Five Seasons in the lower ranks of the club with Ronaldo knew Marquez and etto being a fixture

in the starting lineup Barcelona had maxed out on non-european players what's funny was that Messi was registered in the final Squad of the Champions League without any complications with you if thus came the idea of loaning out Messi by the bar support as there were some offers on the table the most serious one coming from Inter Milan and their president Massimo morati but one match changed all of these plans which was the Juan camper trophy against Italian Giants Juventus with the presence of big stars and under the guidance of legendary manager Fabio Capello Reichert thought

that this was the golden chance for Messi to demonstrate his talents [Music] foreign Ovation from the camp now was amazed and said after the match [Music] words were important as it put Messi on the European map because Capello was not the kind of manager that gives compliments easily and here came the official offer from morati Messi's father Jorge discussed the offer with La Porta and mentioned that tinter were ready to offer three times Lionel's current salary but Laporte managed to calm him down and told Jorge that Lionel was in the best footballing situation and the

style at barsa suits him well and will help him develop in the long run the issue dragged on for a couple of weeks and Messi was still unable to feature La Liga despite reichardt still using him in the Champions League the issue was complicated but in the end a solution was drafted Messi signed a new contract with Barcelona his fourth in the last 18 months and finally in September of 2005 Lionel acquired the Spanish nationality and after missing six matches in the league Messi was finally ready to participate Messi quickly took Julie's place on the

right of the trio up front and surprisingly started the Classico at the Santiago bernabeo as Barca won by three goals ten Elegance Madrid he scored his first Champions League goal against panathanikos and scored his first League goal that season against racing in a way that would be repeated many times in his career goals agend for Barcelona and in December he won the Golden Boy award beating Wayne Rooney by a big margin digging deeper into the archives of the Season we can notice Messi's talents at only 18 years old from that age he had the ability

to change his Pace quickly dribble passed numerous defenders in seconds was always Direct in his playstyle and always looked to attack and score Messi also lacked the full vision to find good passes he lacked physical strength and also lacked the quickness in making decisions while receiving the ball and always looks to dribble a lot at any chance he was mostly playing on his talents and natural abilities but it was obvious that he was taking the right steps on the right trajectory when Barcelona faced Chelsea in the round of 16 of the Champions League Messi showed

his impact on the pitch seeing as it was a sensitive match between the two sides after numerous Close Encounters in the previous Seasons the atmosphere inside Stamford Bridge was very tense from the poor pitch conditions to the aggressiveness of the opponent all factors pointed to Messi having a poor showing but the 18 year old was fantastic and managed to get delhorno sent off and introduced himself to the English and European fans [Applause] Barcelona drew the second leg but it came at a cost as Messi had torn his thigh muscles and was out for a few

weeks he came back to training a week before the semi-final first leg in the Champions League and was eager to quickly come back but that eagerness had caused him to injure his thigh muscles again following that Messi was back in training two days before the Champions League final but Reichard and his assistant tenkat thought that Messi was not ready that decision was devastating for the Argentine but the truth was that Lionel failed to understand the limits of his body and watched as Barcelona won the Champions League final from the stands initially Messi refused to celebrate

with his teammates but he eventually came out of that dark place and had some fun with the team Sylvania mentioned that Messi had told him in the locker room that he could never play a new European final in the next 10 years that was Messi's mature mindset from that young age Barcelona won the league and European double as Messi played in 25 matches in all competition and managed to score 8 goals what's more important than these goals was his impact on the pitch at that young age [Music] after his catastrophic debut with a national team

Messi became a regular within Jose pickerman Squad that succeeded in qualifying to the World Cup in Germany despite his injury and his absence from the Champions League final Leonel was selected for the final Argentinian Squad from very early on the president of the Argentine Football Federation giulio Grande saw Messi as the future of the national team he had just signed with Adidas before the tournament and there were huge posters of Messi around the biggest cities of the world that was not to everybody's taste within the squad as there was a divide between the past and

the Future Between The Old Guard and the new blood nevertheless Argentina won their first group match against Ivory Coast unconvincingly as the manager left Messi on the bench for the whole match the next encounter saw Messi's debut in the World Cup as he entered in the last 15 minutes of the second group match against Serbia and Montenegro to assist crossbow and score a goal himself as the match concluded Argentina won by six goals to nil in the following match Messi played 70 minutes against the Netherlands as the goal straw was enough for Argentina to qualify

to the next round then Messi entered in the 84th minute against Mexico and showed the taste of his talents and extra time as the Albi celesti succeeded in advancing to the next round [Applause] Leo's displays within the tournament didn't go unnoticed for Guardiola was writing articles for real pace and said about Messi in one of his articles he reminds me of the true crates and now comes the controversial match the quarter final against the German national team Tevez and Crespo started up front while Messi was on the bench it was a natural selection at that

time after Ayala opened the scoring for Argentina the host started to push up field in the second half then the Argentine keeper got injured as pickerman was forced to make a change he also subbed recalled me for kambiaso but the third and final change was the one that created controversy in hindsight everything pointed to Messi coming on to pressure Germany's High Line but pickerman thought he needed a tall Striker that can defense at pieces for that reason Julio Cruz was called as Messi removed his shoes on the bench the Germans succeeded in equalizing and then

won on penalties as pickerman faced harsh criticism after their exit but his assistant Hugo tokali defended him and said if the match were to be repeated we would do exactly the same Messi was only a teenager and didn't have enough experience and it's easy to say that the coaching staff was wrong but one thing was for sure as mascarano said the debate ended after that World Cup Leo was an automatic starter after that thank you despite the success of last season there were some internal issues Brewing within Barcelona's dressing room the discipline of the team's

leaders like Deco and ronaldinu started to fade while on the other hand Messi was looking to improve and Rise within the hierarchy of the team but he unfortunately fractured his left foot in November and was out of action for over two months Lionel came back to a team that kept failing in big matches he came back just in time for the round of 16 Champions League encounter against Liverpool Reds manager rafabilities decided to play the right footed arbiloa as a left back to cover Messi's diagonal runs through the middle and the plan was effective as

Messi barely had a stamp on the two legs as Liverpool qualified to the next round at the expense of the blougrana football have done it in March another opportunity arose for Messi to shine in a big match as Barcelona hosted Rivals Real Madrid in the cup now at that time Messi was still not clinical in front of goal and missed many chances but in that classical it was a different story despite being an effectiveness of Ronaldinho and ETO being subbed at half time after alligator's red card Messi led the team and scored the hat-trick to

earn Barcelona a precious draw a landmark match for the young Argentinian Samuel etto said after the match for me today Messi is above any other player he has an extra gear when we look closer and to Messi's minutes within the season we can notice that he still played as he always does trying to take on Defenders [Music] [Applause] great change of pace Mercy brilliantly away from garrido what was missing that season was some end product because of his depositioning while receiving passes on the right side of the pitch [Music] although his physical development was obviously

Messi was rewarded with a new contract in March of 2007 and managed to show his great ability in dribbling once again in the Copa del Rey semi-final first leg against khitafi it means hello fans started to seriously think of an answer to the question can we survive without Ronaldinho and the answer as Messi demonstrated maybe yes but despite the Brilliance of the goal reichardt advised Messi to not take on Defenders all the time he had to Pace himself and make the difference in the final third and since that goal Defenders around the league started to

tightly Mark Lionel but Barcelona were in danger of ending the season without a title after Reichert decided to not play Messi in the second leg against khitafi given that parsa won the first leg by five goals to two but the bloggerana suffered a humiliating loss by four goals tenil which kicked them out of the competition in the league Barcelona entered the penultimate match against espanol with the La Liga title within their hands and despite Messi's fantastic performance which included him scoring two goals one of which was controversial absolutely handles this it cheated and it succeeds

failed to seal the match after a dramatic draw against their neighbors which resulted in Madrid clinching the title after their win in the last match yeah in terms of numbers this was considered Messi's best season yet as he managed to score 14 goals in La Liga and 17 goals and 36 matches in all competitions but in terms of achievements and apart from the super copper Barcelona ended the season without a title and getting rid of Ronaldinho and reichardt was considered but the board along with President Laporte decided to hand them one last chance despite the

Dutch manager losing the dressing room completely Messi joined the Argentine national team to compete in the 2007 Copa America tournament in the summer 14 years after their last major title in 1993 Argentina entered this iteration as favorites there were no doubts that Messi was one of the main key figures of the national squad and after passing the group stage with ease Argentina faced Peru in the quarter-final stage Messi played a great match either on the right or the Left Flank Messi was dribbling past the Peruvian Defenders with ease and scored a great goal between the

legs of the Peruvian Keeper [Music] in the semi-final against Mexico Messi scored the goal of the tournament it's messy as Argentina easily won by three goals tunnel to advance to the Copa America final Argentina head coach Coco baseli praised Messi's goal and said only Geniuses are capable of finishing as Messi did Argentina faced Eternal Rivals Brazil in the final the Brazilians arrived to the tournament without some key players like Ronaldinho and Kaka it was shaping to be I'll be celeste's title as they want everyone over but against expectations Argentina were comprehensively beaten by three goals

[Applause] Messi was not considered the scapegoat for this failure as he just turned 20 a few weeks earlier at that time but most of the blame and criticism was aimed towards reikilmi's shoulders whenever really recovered from that loss as his professional career took a very different path the 2007-2008 season was the season of second chances for Barcelona Ronaldinho asked for another year to get back to form while reichardt insisted on stopping the team's downward spiral the club also signed 30 year old French Superstar Thierry Henry Ronaldinho etto Messi and only all in the same team

but in the end they failed to play a single minute together on the pitch throughout the whole season as numerous injuries and other disciplinary issues robbed them of a good season Frank Reichert failed to change the Dynamics of the team as the club suffered in the opening months as it became obvious that they can't compete with Madrid as they sever the loss and the first classical in December as Madrid created a marginal Gap in the standings too nice with the players and failed to officially hand the keys of the team to Messi who showed everybody

that he was the number one star of the team the Argentinian was asked to be patient and cause damage on the wings while Messi was turning from a teenager to a man his body started to negatively react with these drastic changes three separate injuries within the season affected the Argentinian mentally as these injuries made him Miss around two and a half months in total he was putting too much pressure on his body throughout the season just like he did when he was a kid he also came back from injuries way too soon and his diet

was not helping as well although when he played he was no doubt one of the best in the world is a genius Andrei Messi although he was still stuck on the wings in most matches he tried drifting more to the center within games and tried to create from there he started the season exceptionally well as Messi was scoring and even assisting at a very good rate before his first injury and that is what he added that season creating more for his teammates [Music] and after all his performances in 2007 he came in third place behind

Ronaldo and Kaka and the Ballon d'Or voting That season saw the first official encounter between Ronaldo and Messi in the Champions League semi-final stage although it was quite an uneventful two legs in terms of goals the Argentinian had a slight upper hand Barcelona lost his second leg against United at Old Trafford [Applause] Barcelona were also out of the same stage in the Copa del Rey and were way off the top of the La Liga Standings and ended the season in third position on the other hand Messi had another great season as he scored and assisted

16 goals in 40 matches in all competitions he added the skill of assisting to his footballing repertoire the Old Guard of Deco Ronaldinho ETO and Reichert looked to have their days numbered in Barcelona but despite that we must not forget reichardt and Ronald the news influence on Messi they gave their young Argentinian that needed space to learn develop and grow as rondini was beside Messi since he joined the first team but the Brazilians issues these past two seasons were affecting the dynamic of the whole team and people started to really question whether Ronaldinho was considered

a bad Idol for Messi it was time he left and time for Messi to wear the number 10 shirt on his back and left a team on his shoulders it was time for a new chapter for Barcelona and Messi together in came a young Pep Guardiola to take over managerial duties at Barcelona and with him came some Stern changes as both Ronaldinho and Deco were sold while ETO was on the transfer list but the cameroonian proved himself to the new manager with his professionalism and great form within the friendlies in pre-season it was the first

time Leo had gone through this type of an overhaul within the first team especially as it included the departures of some of his close teammates Messi respected guardiola's history as a player but there was some skepticism around his non-existent experience as a first team manager pep had to win layer over but his attempts in the beginning were tough within the preseason Guardiola found it hard to communicate with Leo he was already a man of few words but there was something that was annoying him it turned out that Messi wanted to compete in the Olympics that

summer but the problem was that it coincided with their third round qualifier for the champions league and pep shot to be a very demanding coach and meticulous with its clear ideas and needed that time in pre-season to build this team and that meant that Messi was staying with a team the issue dragged on for a few weeks when eventually pep decided that the best thing to do was to let Messi leave just to make sure he knew that he was at his side Messi joined his Argentinian teammates to participate in the Summer Olympics and managed

to get revenge on their Rivals Brazil in the semi-finals after winning by three goals still and surely now it's game over as Missy finally got to say goodbye to his big brother for the last time Messi and his teammates went on to win the gold medal after their tough win against the Nigerian national team in the final while Messi was gone Barcelona successfully qualified to the group stages of the champions league as Messi was back just in time for the beginning of the La Liga season start with the team was not good in terms of

results but behind the squad was confident in Pep's new methods after participating in several quality training sessions it was a matter of time before these methods would translate and manifest into positive results on the pitch pep demanded discipline from his Wingers as Messi was given freedom to drift inside but also had many defensive duties assigned to him Messi quickly bought in with the coach's demands as he saw the results of his tactics on the pitch pep had also brought with him dietitians to the club in order to improve the output and to prevent injuries as

Messi struggled with injuries the previous two seasons he hardly got injured to then guardiola's reign as the barsa Youth System teached him how to play within a team reichardt gave him confidence and Guardiola added some order to his life and all of this resulted in a player with unlimited potential [Music] [Applause] let's see [Applause] [Music] during Pep's first season Messi played most matches on the right wing but because this new and improved iteration of the Blau Grana like to press the opponent high up the field to keep possession of the ball Messi found himself and

numerous scoring situations as the Argentinian received the ball in very Advanced positions Messi on the turn looking for the room finds the room and finds the corner Messi managed to score 16 goals in all competitions before January and matched his goal tally of the whole of last season and when we look closer at Messi's minutes throughout the season we notice better overall strength to keep possession of the ball and his numerous dazzling runs coming from the right hand side although he took many penalties the previous season he took some pressure ones that here like the

winner away against Catalan neighbors espanol and the dying minutes to a whole new level not only because of his good positioning and new tactics but because of his various ways of finishing a right footed half volley goodbye Missy a volley under pressure from several Defenders dribbling while balancing and shooting in one sequence [Applause] the whole team clicked and were Unstoppable they had stormed the league and in their Champions League they managed to score four goals and a half against Byron mention Messi scored the praise and assisted another as Messi came in second position behind Ronaldo

and the head of Taurus in the Ballon d'Or voting as the blog Runner reached the semi-final stage of both the Copa del Rey and the Champions League Barcelona had to go to the Santiago bernabeo to face Madrid they were in their best form under the manager Juan de Ramos and just four points away from the league leaders Barcelona pep wanted to go there and win and he had a brilliant idea he sat with Messi and showed him some footage of Madrid's Central defender's position he believed that Messi played centrally up front he would have a

lot of space to attack the Defenders because he would drop deep and the Defenders would not know what to do while Henry and etto would stay on the wings waiting for the moment to attack behind the defense and that's how Messi got a taste of the false nine position as the plan worked perfectly [Music] Barcelona Barcelona won a historic match by six goals to two as the La Liga title was almost wrapped up and Messi would not play in that position again until later in the season the semi-final matchup against Chelsea was very tough as

the English side succeeded in blocking off the spaces from Messi in the infamous second leg the blograna seed batai in the dying minutes after Messi set up a niesta for a shot as Barcelona qualified to the Champions League final Messi managed to play his first final with the club since breaking into the team as Barcelona faced atletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final and after a physical match Messi managed to score and assist a goal to help Barcelona lift their second title of the season after sealing La Liga the Champions League final was upon

them this time Messi would feature unlike the 2006 Final in Paris the final was also considered a rematch between Ronaldo and Messi as Sir Alex Ferguson said before the match that without doubt they are the best two at the moment they've had fantastic Seasons several English media Outlets kept publishing a start of Messi before the European final which focused on the argentine's failure and scoring against English teams but Lionel was ready to accept the challenge Peppa entered the match with a similar setup as the bernabeo encounter as after 10 minutes had passed in the final

there was a switch in the lineup as Messi moved to the center United were surprised by that switch as ETO managed to score the opener as Barcelona kept possession of the ball after a tough opening period and despite playing an average match Messi managed to break his duck and score against an English side with a header foreign the final and the trouble for Barcelona and cemented his bid for the Ballon d'Or AKA said after the match Leo demonstrated that he was the best player in the world and his numbers that season reinforced that belief as

after scoring in the final Messi became the top goal scorer in the competition with nine goals and scored 23 goals in La Liga and 38 goals overall while assisting a further 19 and 51 matches in all competitions all of that at only 21 years of age there was no debate that this was his best season yet [Music] thank you pep said in the beginning of the season I've decided Leo was going to play regularly down the middle and with that quote and because ETO didn't fancy playing on the wings that decision to sell was official

Messi's tactical role was clear for the new season but how did Zlatan Ibrahimovic end up at Barcelona Ator refused to go on loan to Valencia and said yes to enter Milan moreover the technical staff at Barca were fans of the Swedish Striker so the deal was set ATO left for the Nira duri plus 46 million euros and Zlatan came the other way Guardiola decided to implement the classic Dutch 433 which usually has a forward capable of holding the ball like Zlatan Ibrahimovic but for that lineup to work Zlatan had to establish an understanding with his

colleagues on the pitch especially with Leo who like to come from the right and occupy those Central areas but unlike ETO who pushed Defenders deep into the box Zlatan liked to receive the ball outside the penalty area it was destined to be a tricky season given this predicament but there were no such issues in the beginning as Barcelona started the season strongly as both Zlatan and Messi were scoring goals and helping the team win matches [Applause] with the UEFA super Cup and the super copper spania in the back they had one title left to complete

the sex Tuple and that was the club World Cup in December and the final against the studiantes Messi scored with his chest and extra time to secure the sixth title for Barca [Music] after he came in third position in 2007 and second position in 2008 Messi won the Ballon d'Or in 2009 and also won the FIFA Player of the Year award which was exclusively voted by International managers and national team captains from around the globe despite the individual accolades Barcelona started the new year with a couple of blips as they crashed out of the round

of 16 of the Copa del Rey against Sevilla in January and despite their positive results in the league Guardiola studied Messi's performances closely especially when he failed to score and impact the game and three consecutive matches within the month of February the third match of the series was the round of 16 encounter against Stuttgart which saw barsa draw 1-1 in Germany pep noticed Messi's preoccupation with defensive duties against an attacking fullback from the German team and had little impact from the wings as well and when he decides to cut inside Barcelona would pay the price

defensively for that reason Guardiola decided to play Messi in the false nine position in the return lick with Pedro and only beside him as Barcelona won by four goals tenel with Messi scoring a brace for years Messi was waiting to be played in this position consistently circumstances pushed pep to take the decision despite zlatan's presence the Swedish Striker didn't do anything wrong he was on a great scoring run and was still starting most matches in the league but despite his Effectiveness on an individual level he was still not the best option for Barcelona an example

of this complicated matter was the quarterfinal matchup against Arsenal Zlatan started the first leg at the Emirates Stadium and despite him not clicking with his teammates the Swede managed to score a brace as Barca left London with a thrilling draw Ibrahimovic resorted to a secret weapon and played Messi in the middle again and what happened will be cemented in the history books [Applause] [Music] [Music] with guardiola's tweaks throughout the year Messi managed to score a hat-trick in three separate occasions before he scored four goals and the second leg against the Gunners it was clearly the

right fit for the whole team especially when they play in the tricky European matches but Guardiola suddenly won against his intuition when they visited the Giuseppe miazza to face Inter Milan under the manager Jose Mourinho as he played Zlatan in the middle and Messi on the wings Mourinho completely out coached pep in both legs as barsa's Weapons or nullified [Music] information on the return leg but after only 60 Minutes Zlatan was up to push Messi to the middle but it was not enough an outstanding defensive display from enter saw them go through despite Mortez red

card [Music] messy Dynamic can be summarized like this Zlatan is not the type of player to go against his natural playstyle and in his mind he was not bought to make space for Leo as Zlatan said it is like you bought a Ferrari but you are driving it as a vetoer a Fiat Zlatan tried to discuss the issue with pep but the situation was clear there were no issues on a personal level between Messi and Zlatan on the other hand Leo never asks Zlatan to leave as former barsa director of football cheeky burgerstein had mentioned

zlatan's style of play simply made Peppa and Barcelona take a decision in the end it was a footballing problem and its victim was latan Ibrahimovic Barcelona ended the season with a league title that saw them pick up 99 points while Messi scored 34 goals in La Liga a feat not achieved since Ronaldo in 1997. Messi scored 47 goals overall and assisted further 12 and 53 matches in all competitions each year was considered Messi's best season yet his ascendancy was Unstoppable despite the Tactical issues with the team [Music] by that time Messi's International career with Argentina

was considered somewhat successful and under 20 World Cup champion in 2005 and a gold medalist in the 2008 Olympics despite the disappointments of the 06 World Cup and the 07 Copa America Messi wasn't considered the main protagonist of the team or the man that would Bear all the blame but for the arrival of the 2010 World Cup and with his numerous achievements both on an individual and Team level with Barcelona there was no doubt that he was the number one star of Argentina in the middle of the World Cup qualifying campaign the Argentine national team

suffered under coach Coco baseli Diego Maradona singled out Messi as the sole reason for the poor performances Diego slowly created a general mistrust of Messi and the minds of the average Argentina fan who worshiped Maradona after the 1-1 draw against the Peruvian national team in September of 2008 Maradona said sometimes Messi plays for Messi he has so much arrogance that he forgets about his teammates pressure was absolutely mounting on Messy as he replied to maradona's critique and said I'm used to Diego speaking out we all know what he is like but Maradona didn't stop talking

and as the national team kept suffering under coach Coco baseli the Federation thought that the best way to shut Maradona up was to put him in the hot seat and Coach Argentina so in October of 2008 Maradona was appointed Albi Celeste manager with no coaching badge and a total of three victories within two stints as a manager in the 90s Maradona found himself coaching one of the best talents in the 21st century Diego wanted to replicate what Guardiola did at Barcelona to get the best out of Messi but it was more complicated than only playing

the same system it demanded different personnel and rules and also better training sessions all of which were far beyond capabilities as a manager but Maradona and Leo got pretty close in that period as Diego understood Messi's Ambitions and his quiet demeanor and gave him the legendary number 10 shirt and that was possible after Ray kill me's second retirement after he and Maradona got into arrest but results kept vegan consistent a foreign against Venezuela which saw Maradona praise Leo was followed by a humiliating 6-1 loss against continent minnows Bolivia Maradona failed to prepare the team to

execute within matches while Messi was not at his best as he searched for individual Brilliance in a team that lacked cohesion and six matches under Maradona Argentina won and two and lost four but with two matches left in the qualifiers it was still within their hands as they managed to win against Piru and Uruguay and qualify to the World Cup by the skin of their teeth [Music] as the 2010 World Cup etched closer Maradona sat with Messi to decide on the best system to get the most out of Leo Messi suggested two systems and discussed

other details as well and suddenly Messi felt positive about their chances but in Argentina at that time there was a feeling that Leo was like a stranger at the national team he was a superstar at Barcelona and a shadow of his usual self with Argentina some perceive him as not Argentinian because of his development in a foreign country and others see him as uninterested in the Russian team nevertheless Messi and his teammates started their World Cup campaign in very good form as they won all of their opening three matches convincingly Messi was even handed the

captaincy in the third group match against Greece as mascarano was absent a move from Maradona to crypto morale very high Messi said and the national team I was not the same I was not who I was at Barcelona but I've always had Diego's support and I change all of that thanks to my teammates's confidence in me despite their 3-1 win against Mexico on the round of 16 none of the players were convinced of maradona's system which saw four attack-minded players play in front of Messi with mascaranu behind him as the pivot they needed to improve

immensely in their quarter-final matchup against the Germans but in their first big batch of the tournament Argentina collapsed and gave up four goals to a clinical German site [Applause] Messi scored 47 goals with Barcelona That season and ended up without a single goal in five matches at the World Cup frame under the manager Maradona Messi had only three goals and 16 matches one of his worst stretches ever with the Argentine national team and despite the Tactical managerial and individual issues within their team their criticism back home focused on one person and that was messy because

he failed to lift an average team by himself to win the World Cup and why not Maradona had done it in the past these were their views why doesn't he celebrate with enough passion if he was earning Euros he would have played better he is arrogant he is autistic these were the things that were said and written about Messi in Argentina and Messi had never seen a backlash like this in his young career to this point and the question now was how can he come back from these recent disappointments are we sure that he is

destined to be one of the best in history or were these last few years only a blip only the future holds the rest of the story the story of how Messi ruled Europe and then the world [Music] me