In the wave of commercialization of soccer, it has become increasingly rare for players to step into the giants from birth until their retirement. However, Messi's career review in Barcelona is not the end of his soccer career, but a red and blue intertwined memories, heralding a new journey.
After the return of Ronaldinho, Messi took over the scepter of Barcelona. 2008-2009 season, Messi ushered in his personal peak, helping Barcelona to create the "dream three" dynasty and "MSN" domination era.
Pep Guardiola comes in and overhauls Barcelona. Ronaldinho returned to the team and Messi wore the No. 10 jersey. Previously, Messi missed a total of eight months between 2006 and 2008 due to muscle injuries, and the Red and Blue's technical team tailored a new training and nutrition program for him.
Barcelona, coached by Pep Guardiola, is not only outstanding in control, but also full of aesthetics. Messi and Henry, Eto'o formed a trident offense sharp, 2008-2009 season, the three together scored 100 goals. Pep Guardiola allowed Messi to roam freely on the right side of the pitch, which greatly unleashed his attacking potential. Messi scored 38 goals in 51 games, a qualitative leap in the number of individual goals.
League second round of the national derby, Guardiola innovative arrangement Messi play false center forward, Messi in the midfield with Harvey, Iniesta partner, played a control level performance, and finally scored 2 goals in a single game, led the team 6-2 sweep of Real Madrid, in the Bernabeu completed the "Madrid massacre". Later, Messi led the team in the King's Cup to beat Bilbao 4-1 to win the title, and the league is to force Real Madrid to win the title. In the Champions League, Messi scored 9 goals, not only for the first time to become the best scorer in the Champions League, but also led Barcelona to beat Manchester United 2-0 in the final, realizing the single-season treble.
Barcelona renewed Messi's contract with a deadline until the summer of 2016, with the liquidated damages rising to 250 million euros and an annual salary of 12 million euros. Messi led the Red and Blue Army in the Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup and the Club World Cup to win consecutive titles, Barcelona became the soccer world's first annual six champions! Messi also undisputedly became the winner of the annual Golden Ball Award.
In the 2009-2010 season, Messi's stats were even more terrifying, scoring 47 goals in 53 games. However, restricted by Mourinho's utilitarian style of play, Barcelona were knocked out of the Champions League by Inter Milan in the semi-finals, with Messi scoring 8 goals to win his second Champions League top scorer. On the domestic scene, Barcelona lost the Copa del Rey, but scored a combined 34 La Liga goals to win the European Golden Boot for the first time.
In the 2010-2011 season, Messi scored 53 goals in 55 matches, which is close to one goal per game. At the beginning of the season, Messi assisted Barcelona to win the title with one individual divine performance. After losing to Sevilla in the first round of the La Liga Premier Cup, Messi scored a hat-trick in the second round to lead his team to a 4-0 comeback and eventually win the title. Messi then led Barcelona to a 5-0 win in the first leg of the league's national derby.
Real Madrid, coached by Jose Mourinho at the time, kicked off one of the peaks of national derbies in the last 10 years. In the second half of that season, Barcelona and Real Madrid played four national derbies in 18 days. Although Barcelona lost in extra time to Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final, Messi scored twice in the first round at the Bernabeu in the all-important Champions League semi-final, assisting the Red and Blues to a 2-0 victory, directly laying the foundations for progression.
After the successful defense of the league, Messi led the "MVP" combination on the stage of the UEFA Champions League final, in the face of Manchester United at Wembley, Barcelona's pass-control soccer played the Red Devils have no resistance, and finally Barcelona 3-1 victory over the United, look at Ferguson's trembling hands at the time, you know Barcelona's game to play how horrible, so that Manchester United feel how powerless. At the end of the season, Messi became the first player in Barcelona team history and Spanish soccer history to break the 50-ball mark in a single season with 53 goals and 24 assists.
The 2011-2012 season was a record-breaking season for Messi in a row. At that time, Messi was already a super player combining the No. 8 inventor, the No. 9 finisher and the No. 10 assister, the three big characters in one. Messi scored 73 goals that season, surpassing the European record for individual goals in a single season set by Gerd Müller in the 1972-1973 season, in addition to Messi also assisted 29 times, completing 10 hat tricks.
In the Western Super Cup, Messi scored 3 goals individually to help Barcelona beat Real Madrid 5-4 to win the title, and accumulated 8 goals to become the top scorer in the history of the Western Super Cup. And after defeating Santos 4-0 in the 2011 Club World Cup final, Messi led Barcelona to complete the annual five crowns! He also won the Ballon d'Or for the third time.
In the second half of the season, Messi continued to complete the amazing outbreak. In the Champions League 1/8 final match against Leverkusen, Messi completed a single game "five!". The game was a one-game series of "five goals! In a single season, he scored a total of 14 Champions League goals, equaling Altafini's record in the 1962-1963 season.
However, Pep Guardiola's Barcelona was already at the end of its tether. Although Barcelona beat Athletic Bilbao to win the Copa del Rey that season, they failed to complete the 3-peat by defeating Real Madrid in the league battle. In addition, in the Champions League semi-final against Chelsea out, Messi's biggest regret is the second round of penalties conceded.
The return of Pep Guardiola has seen Barcelona enter another period of disarray. Messi was knocked out of the Copa del Rey by Real Madrid despite leading Barca to equal Real Madrid's record 100-point La Liga title run in the 2012-2013 season and scoring a whopping 46 goals in a single season himself. He was swept aside by Bayern Munich 7-0 in the Champions League semi-finals. But with his outstanding individual performance, Messi set a world record of 91 goals in a single year in 2012 and won the Ballon d'Or for the fourth time.
In the 2013-2014 season, Neymar joined Barcelona and Messi had a capable assistant. However, Martino's coaching was quite bad, and Barcelona lost all three fronts that season. Even though Neymar was considered as the future leader of Barcelona, Messi's king status was unshakeable, and the Barcelona executives signed a new contract with Messi in May 2014, which increased Messi's salary to 20 million euros, making him the number one annual salary in the soccer world.
Messi lost to Germany in the final of the World Cup in Brazil, but when he returned to Barcelona, he got the news that Suarez had joined the team. Under Enrique's coaching, Barcelona in the second half of the season began to rely on the "MSN" combination of superb play began to break out, opened the team history of another new era.
Messi became La Liga's all-time top scorer and Catalan Derby top scorer that season. Messi, Neymar and Suarez completed their first joint outburst on January 11, 2015 against Atletico Madrid, with Messi returning to the right winger position himself in order to satisfy Suarez. The trio combined for 122 goals that season, setting a new all-time record in Spanish soccer.
Under the powerful outbreak of the "MSN" combination, Barcelona successfully won the La Liga title, the Copa del Rey title and the Champions League title that season. Despite the subsequent defeat in the Western Supercup, Barcelona still inserted the European Supercup champion and Club World Cup champion, Messi in Barcelona for the second time with the team to complete the "single-season triple crown" and "annual five champions".
Barcelona's ace trident combination was at the top of its game in the 2015-2016 season, sweeping Real Madrid 4-0 in the league's first-round national derby. Messi won his fifth Ballon d'Or himself after leading his team to a 3-0 defeat of River Plate in the 2015 Club World Cup final, and on December 30 of that year, Messi made his 500th Barcelona appearance against Betis.
However, after Zidane took office, he began to gradually narrow the distance between Real Madrid and Barcelona, and the Red and Blue Army fought until the last round to complete the league title defense in a thrilling manner. But in the Champions League, Barcelona quarter-final defeat Atletico Madrid out, Messi just led Barcelona in the King's Cup final in extra time to beat Sevilla to obtain the title. Messi is leading the "MSN" combination of single-season bombardment of 131 goals, more than the previous record set by himself.
The 2016-2017 season was the curtain call for Barcelona's "MSN" combination. Messi lifted the Copa Libertadores title as captain when Iniesta was injured. However, Barcelona in the second half of the season began to gradually towards the collapse of the first round of the 1/8 finals of the Champions League in the case of 0-4 loss, the second round of the home 6-1 overturned eliminated the opponent, although it is a masterpiece, but then the last eight, Barcelona directly by Juventus 3-0 swept out of the game.
Although Barcelona beat Alaves 3-1 in the Copa del Rey final to win the title, they lost the La Liga battle against Real Madrid. The most fatal blow to Barcelona is that Neymar was bought out by Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the season, and Barcelona's "MSN" combination became history.
