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Precisely 20 years ago, the player many consider to be the greatest of all time made his senior debut.
At the age of 17, Lionel Messi made his first appearance in LaLiga on October 16, 2004, replacing goalscorer Deco from the bench in Barcelona’s 1-0 win at Espanyol. He was, at the time, the club’s youngest player to feature in an official game.
The rest, as they say, is history – 846 goals, eight Ballons d’Or and 43 senior team honours later, Messi has certainly cemented his place among the all-time greats.
On the 20th anniversary of his first professional outing, we celebrate the Argentine maestro by delving into the best facts and figures of his glittering career.
From prodigy to club legend
Messi’s crowning achievement may have come on the international stage, but it was at Barcelona where he became a great, after joining their famed academy aged 13.
By the time of his 2021 departure, Messi had cemented himself as Barca’s all-time leader for appearances (766) and starts (687) in all competitions, scoring an incredible 664 goals for the Blaugrana – comfortably ahead of Cesar Rodriguez’s 232, previously recognised as the club record.
Messi averaged a goal every 94 minutes during his 17-year stint in the club’s senior team, while his 260 assists were some 123 more than Xavi (137), who boasts the second-best figure since Opta records began.
All in all, Messi directly contributed to a staggering 924 goals while at Barca. The next-best figure by a single player in that time belongs to Luis Suarez, who managed 295 (198 goals, 97 assists).
The Argentine lifted 35 trophies – including LaLiga 10 times and the Champions League on four occasions – during his time at Camp Nou, also a record tally for any Barca player.
No love in Paris
When financial troubles left Barca unable to renew Messi’s contract ahead of the 2021-22 season, he bid a tearful farewell to his adopted home and joined French giants Paris Saint-Germain.
Messi did contribute to two Ligue 1 title wins in as many seasons with the club, yet his time in Paris was not altogether happy, with early Champions League exits at the hands of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich giving way to fan protests.
Messi did win his seventh Ballon d’Or during his debut campaign in France, though, partly as a result of Argentina’s 2021 Copa America triumph.
His 26 league appearances in 2021-22 were his fewest in any league campaign since 2006-07, when he was still a teenager, and he was limited to just six goals and nine assists in the French top flight.
Sixteen goals and as many assists followed in 2022-23, and through his two years in Ligue 1, only Kylian Mbappe (79) and Wissam Ben Yedder (55) bettered his overall tally of 55 goal involvements in the competition.
To the Sunshine State
A fractious relationship with PSG’s fans and a lack of continental success made Messi’s stay in France unhappy, and in 2023 he went Stateside, joining David Beckham-owned MLS franchise Inter Miami.
Success was immediate as Messi fired the Herons to Leagues Cup glory in August 2023. By the end of that particular campaign, Messi’s 10 goals in seven matches put him third in Inter Miami’s all-time goalscoring charts without even appearing in a league game.
The 2024 Supporters’ Shield followed last month, and Messi is the hot favourite to be named MLS MVP after a brilliant individual campaign, the highlights of which include a 10-match run with a goal involvement to start the season and five assists in May’s 6-2 rout of the New York Red Bulls, a game in which he also scored.
No player had previously had six goal involvements in an MLS game, or teed up five goals for team-mates in a single match, nor had Messi previously achieved either feat for club and country.
Only Luciano Acosta (30), Evander (29), Cucho Hernandez, Denis Bouanga and Christian Benteke (all 28) have bettered his 27 direct goal involvements in regular-season play this year. The most impressive part? Messi has only started 15 games.
International glory
It now seems unthinkable to imagine Messi being maligned by Argentina fans, but that was the case for the majority of his career as he struggled to live up to Diego Maradona’s achievements in the Albiceleste shirt.
However, back-to-back Copa America successes in 2021 and 2024, coming either side of a remarkable run to World Cup glory in 2022, have altered that perception for good.
Messi was named Player of the Tournament and scooped the Golden Boot as Argentina ended their 18-year wait for silverware at the 2021 Copa, but it was Qatar 2022 that saw him really cement his legacy.
Only Poland – in Argentina’s third group game – prevented Messi from scoring as he ended the tournament with seven goals and three assists, including two strikes and a successful spot-kick in the shoot-out win over France in the final.
Only Gerd Muller (10 goals, three assists in 1970), Just Fontaine (13 goals in 1958) and Sandor Kocsis (11 goals in 1954) have ever bettered that figure at a single World Cup.
His 21 overall goal contributions at the World Cup are the most in tournament history, while he is the only player to win the Golden Ball award at two separate editions – doing so in 2014 and 2022.
This year’s Copa America gave Messi a chance to further underline his international legacy, and though he was withdrawn due to injury in the final, Argentina got the job done against Colombia.
Messi opted against calling it quits there, though, and Tuesday’s hat-trick against Bolivia saw him equal Cristiano Ronaldo’s record for the most trebles in international football, with 10.
His tally of 112 Argentina goals puts him some way adrift of Ronaldo’s tally of 133 for Portugal, though his recent run of international trophies more than makes up for it.
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