Some players are born to score, some are born to create, and a very few can do both at the highest level. If you check the number on their jersey, it’s almost always 10.
Leo Messi has just crossed over 1250 goal contributions in his career, that’s 1.13 goals or assists every 90 minutes. The man gets involved in a goal every 73 minutes on average. We’re talking around 866 goals and 384 assists. He’s not just a pure goalscorer, he’s also one of the most wonderful playmakers you’ll ever see. At 38 years old now, time catches up with everyone, but Messi’s legacy feels completely immortal.
Let me take you through his whole journey, from Rosario to Barcelona to Paris to Miami, and show how he kept evolving with the game.
The Kid Who Was Told He Couldn’t Play
It started with a kid whose doctors literally said he couldn’t even step on a pitch because of growth hormone deficiency. Football was forbidden for him. He was tiny, weak, just standing in the stands watching his elder brother play and knocking the ball around the edges. One day the coach asked his mom to bring him as an extra player. Mom said no way, but Grandma was the real supporter, she pushed him hard to play football.
First time he touched the ball? Pure lightning. In that debut run he dribbled past five or six players with his shy left foot. Coach screaming “Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!” but the kid was too small to even get it on target properly. The greatest player ever was told he was too small to shoot. The gift was already there, he just didn’t know it yet.
First club Newell’s Old Boys, joined at 8, super skinny, shirt way too big. But from kick-off he’d beat four or five players with those quick choppy steps, changing direction like positioning was built into his brain. Bigger kids tackling and fouling him nonstop, but he’d quietly get back up and create havoc all over again.
You could see Maradona similarities right away, short, left-footed, shaggy hair, that delicate close control. Then in 2007 a young Messi against Getafe gets the ball in his own half and runs almost the exact same path as Maradona’s Goal of the Century. Bro, it felt like the football gods were directing the whole thing.
Arrival at Barcelona and the False Nine Revolution
He lands at Barcelona with Ronaldinho wearing the number 10. Ronaldinho himself says “I’m not the best, just wait a couple years, this kid will be.” Johan Cruyff predicted multiple Ballons d’Or. First senior goal? Ronaldinho chips it over the defense, Messi volleys with the left foot over the keeper. Camp Nou stands up, claps, bows, they knew they were watching their future god.
2008, Ronaldinho leaves, Pep Guardiola comes in as a young manager and makes Messi the absolute center of the team. Biggest turning point of his career. Pep shifts him from right wing to false nine. One El Clásico at the Bernabéu, eight minutes in, Pep signals from the sideline: go central. Messi bags two goals, one assist, 6-2 win. False nine era explodes.
From 2009 to 2013 he averages over 40 league goals a season while dropping deep to create. Four straight Ballons d’Or, nobody had ever done that. Sextuple, trebles, tiki-taka dominates everything, Spain wins the 2010 World Cup and 2012 Euros because La Masia taught a generation to love and protect the ball like a treasure.
Messi masters the chip over rushing keepers, quick one-twos inside the box, and that teleport-like arrival into space. He never just stood in the box waiting, he appeared exactly when the defense blinked. Involved in 50% of the goals as a false nine.
MSN Era and Wide Playmaker Evolution
2013 Neymar joins, slight position overlap. Next year Luis Suárez arrives from Liverpool. Messi tells him “Hey fatso, come into the center, I’ll open up the wings for you.” MSN is born, easily the best attacking trio the world has ever seen. Neymar’s flair, Suárez’s killer mentality, Messi’s simple genius. Another treble in 2015 under Luis Enrique. That solo goal against Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final, dribbling everyone from the right side? Bro, science says that goal shouldn’t even be possible.
Carrying Barcelona and the Later Years
Xavi leaves in 2015, Iniesta in 2018, the holy midfield disappears. Tiki-taka fades, football turns more physical and athletic. Messi carries declining Barcelona teams deep into his 30s, winning Pichichi every single year from 2016 to 2021, grabbing three European Golden Boots along the way. His goals become harder, longer range, more precise, absolute wonder strikes from impossible angles. Free kicks turn deadly. The 2019 season was straight madness.
Tearful goodbye to Barcelona, moves to PSG with his old friend Neymar. Not the happiest chapter, but it kept him sharp in a physical league and transformed him into a deep-line playmaker. Legs slower, but the brain sharper than ever, short bursts just to beat his marker and release passes only he could see.
The Ultimate Redemption: 2022 World Cup
Everything was leading to the 2022 World Cup. Years of heartbreak, 2014 final loss in the 113th minute, missed penalties in Copa finals, even retired from Argentina for a bit. Scaloni finally builds a proper team around him: runners like De Paul, cover like Molina, quality like Enzo and Mac Allister, young striker Álvarez, angel Di María.
Messi doesn’t have to sprint the whole pitch anymore, he walks, scans, then pops up at the perfect moment. In that tournament we saw every version of Messi: false nine magic, wide creator brilliance, deep playmaker vision. Goal against Mexico, one-two against Australia, assist to Molina, that burn against Croatia, close combinations in the final. And the calmest penalty you’ll ever see against France. Finally lifts the one trophy he bled for his whole life.
From the kid doctors banned from the pitch to hoisting the World Cup and shaking hands with paradise, that’s Leo Messi. Eight Ballons d’Or, 46 titles (most ever by any player), now running things at Inter Miami.
Bro, Leo Messi is the best footballer the world has ever seen. Full stop.
If you want the super detailed version with way more stories, stats, and clips, go watch the full video on my YouTube channel!
