Messi, who has won 10 Spanish top-flight titles, four Champions League titles and three Club World Cup’s during his 17-year senior career with Barcelona, leaves after scoring 672 goals for the club.
Lionel Messi poses with the Champions League trophy in 2011. AP
Argentine football star Lionel Messi on Sunday confirmed his departure from LaLiga giants FC Barcelona, during an emotional press conference.
Messi, who has won 10 Spanish top-flight titles, four Champions League titles and three Club World Cup’s during his 17-year senior career with Barcelona, leaves after scoring 672 goals for the club.
AFP Sport takes a look at some of Lionel Messi’s finest moments with Barcelona, for whom he played 788 games before it was first announced by the club that the global star would be leaving on Thursday.
First hat-trick against Real Madrid (2007)
10 March, 2007, a 3-3 draw in La Liga at home to Real Madrid.
Two left-footed strikes from the mesmerising Argentine starlet Messi brought Barcelona back into a game where Ruud van Nistelrooy had plundered a 2-0 lead at the Nou Camp for arch-rivals Real Madrid. But Messi’s cheeky 90th minute equaliser after stealing the ball form Sergio Ramos made the then 19-year-old and his deadly finishing the talk of the town.
Seismic 6-2 win at Real Madrid (2009)
2 May, 2009, a 6-2 Liga win at Real Madrid.
Messi was at the heart of three of the goals that saw Madrid slip to their bitterest home defeat ever to Barcelona in a painful 6-2 lesson. As Messi bloomed at the heart of a Barcelona side flourishing around him, the team won worldwide acclaim that year with a treble of Liga, Spanish Cup and Champions League under coach Pep Guardiola.
Four-goal haul against Arsenal (2010)
6 April, 2010, a 4-1 Champions League quarter-final win over Arsenal at the Camp Nou.
Barcelona were in trouble against Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal after a 2-2 draw in London when they fell 1-0 behind at home as the Londoners dared an attacking strategy that fell short as Messi ran rampant. Starting with a long range shot before conjuring two more from nothing and ending with a lethal low shot Messi again stole the plaudits and the show.
He would score five against Leverkusen in a 7-1 win in 2012, a year in which he racked up 91 goals. But the Arsenal mauling stands above that as his most dazzling display.
Beating Real in Europe (2011)
27 April, 2011, a 2-0 Champions League semi-final away win at Real Madrid
In his first meeting with Real Madid in Europe Messi scored a stunning late double in the opening away-leg as Guardiola’s Barcelona killed the contest in a game that attracted massive worldwide audiences.
Champions League win at Wembley (2011)
28 May, 2011, Champions League final, a 3-1 victory over Manchester United in London.
In a rematch of the 2009 final also won by Barca, Messi propels his team to victory with a fine strike, his 53rd goal in 55 matches at that time in the season. He also won the title of top scorer in the competition that year, with 12 goals.
Double against Guardiola (2015)
6 May, 2015, Champions League semi-final, first leg— a 3-0 win over Bayern Munich at Camp Nou.
Facing his former coach Pep Guardiola, Messi scored twice in three minutes at the end of the game.
The highlight then was a dribble which left opposing defender Jerome Boateng on his backside, before setting up Neymar.
Mythical celebration (2017)
23 April, 2017, in La Liga, a 3-2 victory at the Bernabeu against Real Madrid.
Messi was left bleeding from the nose after a nudge from Real’s Marcelo.
Madrid went in front before Messi levelled. At the end of the game, with the score at 2-2, Messi scores past Keylor Navas with the clock showing the second minute of injury time.
He celebrated by removing his shirt, holding it at arms’ length in front of stunned Madrid supporters, his chin raised in a sign of defiance.
With inputs from AFP
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