Barcelona signs Agüero, Messi's compatriot

Today, a few hours ago, Barcelona finally announced the signing of Sergio 'Kun' Agüero, coming from Manchester City. He's known Messi since 2005, prior to the 2005 U-20 World Cup, so their friendship comes a long way back. I will soon do an entry regarding their link-up.

Some of his statements regarding Leo were: "It's a pleasure and I am proud to play with Leo, If he continues. Which I think he will. I will try to give it my all as he has always done." and "Leo and I talk every day. Being able to train with him every day will allow us to get to know each other better.", as well as saying that Barcelona is the best club in the world.

Hopefully they both link up well in the coming season at Barça. I hope you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.

Messi vs South American countries

Having detailed Messi's performances against teams from the top 5 leagues, it's now time to look at Messi's performances against teams from certain continents/subcontinents, which is a good time considering Messi will return to the national team in a few days.

Overall, Messi has the following stats against South American countries: 79 games, 29 goals and 19 assists (22 counting non-Opta), which means that Messi has 48 (or 51) G/A, an average of 0.61 (0.65) per game, which is not bad.

Going country for country here are his stats:

Bolivia: 9 games, 3 goals, 1 assist. With U-20: 1 game, 2 goals.

Brazil: 11 games, 5 goals. With U-20: 2 games, 2 goals.

Chile: 9 games, 3 goals, 2 assists, 1 red card. With U-20: 1 game, no goals.

Colombia: 9 games, 3 goals, 2 assists. With U-20: 3 games, 1 goal.

Ecuador: 6 games, 5 goals, 1 assist.

Paraguay: 10 games, 5 goals, 5 assists. With U-20: 1 game, 1 goal, 2 assists.

Peru: 7 games, 1 goal. In U-20: 1 game, 1 goal.

Uruguay: 9 games, 5 goals, 2 assists. With U-20: 2 games, 2 goals, 1 assist.

Venezuela: 9 games, 4 goals, 6 assists. With U-20: In U-20: 2 games, 1 goal, 1 assist.

With this, he became the first Argentine player to score against all other Conmebol nations, and the 4th player ever to do it, which is quite an impressive achievement.

Clearly, despite the physicality that South American countries play with, Messi still performs well against them. Now with the upcoming 2022 World Cup qualifiers and the Copa America, Messi will hopefully further increase these numbers. That is all for today, so I hope you liked this entry and I'll see you in the next blog.

How Messi would look like in the 2021-22 Barcelona home kit

With Barcelona's home kit for the next season is all but confirmed, it is reasonable to start looking at how it would look on Messi. Fortunately, a user called nikita_23k did all the work using Pro Evolution Soccer 2021 to simulate roughly how he'd look under this new kit. This is the result:

Not bad, and there's also much more that nikita_23k pictured, using different angles and even a simulated recreated mid-game pic from him. Let's look at those pictures as well:

Those are all the pictures I have of how Messi would look like in this new Barça kit. I hope you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.

Messi's best performance ever

10 years ago, Barcelona beat Manchester United 3-1 to win the 2010/11 UCL final. In this game, according to some, Messi made his best performance ever. This is what today's entry will be talking about, without further ado, let's get into Messi's performance.

Messi made some good runs in the first half, managing some dribbles as well, but it would be Pedro who opened up the score for Barcelona. Rooney later equalized the game with a good shot (which came from an offside player), and for the last important play of the first half, Messi made a good run and nearly scored after Villa passed him the ball back, but he couldn't reach the ball for the final shot.

For the second half, Messi shot from out the box for an incredible goal to the near post, a powerful shot that Van Der Sar couldn't save. It was 2-1 for Barcelona at Wembley, as Messi passionately celebrated his goal. For the last goal, Messi made a great run to the box, where he later lost the ball, but it got picked up by Pedro, who passed it to Villa and smashed it into the back of the net for the final scoreline of 3-1. Messi couldn't be any happier as he celebrated the goal, smashing his fists into the air while kneeling on the ground.

As the final whistle was heard, Barcelona became champions of Europe. It was their 4th Champions League in their history, and Messi's 3rd. Messi was in the ToTS, won the top scorer award with 12 goals, and made the most dribbles in the competition (71). And for his position, he made the most short passes (739) and passes overall (748).

His stats from the game were: 1 goal, 3 SoT (5 in total), 4 key passes, 10 dribbles, 1 through-ball, 6 fouls won, 92/100 passes, and 125 touches. This earned him a perfect 10/10 WhoScored rating. This was his heatmap:

And this was his performance on video:

As already stated, this performance won Barcelona the UCL final against Manchester United. And with how good and crucial this game was, it's reasonable to say that it was Messi's best performance ever. I hope you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.

Messi returns to training with the national team

After landing in Ezeiza yesterday, Messi did some training alongside his Argentine teammates in preparation for their upcoming World Cup qualifier game against Chile.

Here are some more pics after the training:

That is all from the training. I hope you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.

Messi lands in Argentina and will soon join the national team

A few hours ago, Messi landed in Ezeiza after around 16 hours of flight. Shortly after, he shook hands with Tapia (AFA's president), and soon enough, he'll train with the national team once again at the Julio Grondona Training Camp.

Here are some other pictures taken after landing in Ezeiza:

His next game will be against Chile on June 3rd at 9 PM (Argentina time) for the qualifiers of the 2022 World Cup. I hope you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.

All of the stats that Messi led in the 2020-21 season

With the season over, it's time to look at how many stats Messi was the leader at. Once again, Messi topped numerous statistics despite being 33 years old, so without further ado, let's get into those stats.

First is his ratings, where he was 1st according to WhoScored (8.52), SofaScore (8.33), Fotmob (8.35), and FootballCritic (8.7). Clearly, according to most football analysts, he was the best player this season.

Next up are the shooting stats, where he leads in shots (196), shots/90 (5.8), shots on target (91), shots on target/90 (2.7), shots blocked (55), outside the box shots (103), outside the box shots/90 (3.1), open play shots (135), set piece shots (54), set piece shots/90 (1.6), left foot shots (176), and left foot shots/90 (5.2).

Then there's the playmaking stats, where he leads the following: Big chances created (22) (tied with Filip Kostic), passes into the penalty box (145), progressive passes (317), through-balls (23), shot-creating actions (241), and goal-creating actions (38).

Then the carries, where he leads in the following: Progressive carrying distance (8270), progressive carries (517), and carries into final third (192).

And finally, the dribbles, where he's made the most (159) and tried the most (247).

And of course, he was close in other categories as well, reaching top 10 in numerous other categories, which is astounding. That's all I have for today, so I hope you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.

Barcelona win against Eibar their last game of the season and Messi wins his 8th Pichichi

Yesterday, a Messi-less Barcelona beat Eibar 1-0 away, securing their 3rd place spot. They didn't have a single shot in the first half, showing that Messidependencia is a very real issue within the team, but fortunately, Griemzann managed to score the winner in the second half. Atlético Madrid was crowned champion of La Liga after beating Real Valladolid 2-1.

This also confirms what had been expected since the last matchdays: Messi has won his 8th Pichichi. With 30 goals in 30 games, Messi has won the Pichichi by a clear margin, though not close to the Golden Boot race as he was 11 goals behind him, but still in 2nd spot. This Pichichi win means the following things:

• Messi won his 5th Pichichi, setting a record for the most Pichichis won in a row, beating Di Stéfano's and Hugo Sanchez's 4-peat.
• Messi equals Jean Pierre Papin's record of 5 consecutive league top scorer awards, set in the 1990/91 season.

Now, the team must focus on who stays and who goes, with many rumors going around this topic, including Koeman, the manager.

As I previously said, I will do an entry detailing Messi's performance in La Liga this season and overall. I hope you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.

Messi has decided to stay in Barcelona + Messi's full interview with Olé

After all the rumors were spreading around, Benayad Achref, a journalist who's close to Messi, has confirmed that Messi decided to stay in Barcelona, with a month left in his contract.

The exact details of his new contract with Barcelona are not known, with rumors of a 10-year contract to keep him at the club beyond retirement, including a wage cut as well, but receiving long-term financial security as well.

With an over 20-year relationship with the club, it Messi's story with Barcelona won't end yet.

In other news, Messi's full interview with Olé has been released, and it can be seen here. There, he talks about his first games with Grandoli, a bit of his time at Newell's, the facemask he temporarily used at the Cadete, his GHD and its treatment, his switch from Rosario to Barcelona, and much more.

That's all I have for today, so as always, I hope you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.

Messi won't play against Eibar

Recent news have confirmed that Messi won't play against Eibar. Instead, he'll instead take some early vacations before going to the national team to play the qualifiers. This means that Messi's season in Barcelona is over.

Argentina's next game will be against Chile on June 3rd, around 2 weeks time from now. Messi's last game with the national team was back in October of 2020 since the qualifiers for March were canceled, so Messi will finally be back to play for the albiceleste. The Copa América isn't far away from now either.

Soon, I will do an entry detailing Messi's performance in the 2020/21 season. I hope you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.

Messi's interview with Olé

Yesterday, Diario Olé, a popular Argentine sports newspaper, declared that in celebration of their 25th anniversary they would do an exclusive interview with Messi, which will be fully shown on Saturday, May 22nd.

Not much else is known other than this information, so that's where the news end. So I hope you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.