Another Messi masterclass earns Barcelona 3 more points

Yesterday, Barcelona beat Valencia 3-2 with yet another great performance from Messi. Gabriel Paulista gave Valencia the lead 50 minutes in, but Messi, after missing a penalty, managed to score the equalizer. Griezmann then gave Barcelona the lead 2-1, and Messi consolidated it with a great free-kick goal. Soler's late goal didn't serve for much as Barcelona won 3-2 anyways. Messi's stats were: 2 goals, 1 big chance created, 3 SoT (5 in total), 1.84 xG, 7 dribbles, 1 key pass, 1 GCA, 6 SCA, 0.45 xA, 10 duels won out of 14, 3 fouls won, 1 tackle, 5 pressures (1 successful), 2 passes blocked, 4 ball recoveries, 2 long balls, 67 passes out of 86, and 108 touches. A great performance that earned a 10/10 according to Infogol. This was his performance on video:

Here are some fun facts after the game:

• Messi scored his 50th free-kick for Barcelona.
• Messi scored his 130th outside-the-box goal (free-kicks and open play).
• Messi has equaled Ronaldo's free-kick goal amount (56).
• Mestalla became the 6th stadium Mesi has scored 10+ goals in.
• Messi played his 20th game at Mestalla.
• Messi became the only player to score 10+ La Liga goals in 5 different away stadiums.
• Messi surpassed Carmelo Cedrún and is now tied in 18th place with Molina for the most games completed in La Liga (408).
• Messi is now tied with Raúl García in 7th place for the most games played in La Liga (517).
• Valencia became the 3rd side he has scored 30+ goals against.

This was an important game to win, as were the games before and as are the following games in the race for the La Liga title. Messi still leads in the Pichichi race by a good margin, so his Ballon d'Or campaign is looking good so far. The next game will be crucial, as Barça will be facing Atlético Madrid at home, which will probably settle who stands in the title race if it doesn't end in a draw. But until then, I'll see you in the next blog.

Messi's thoughts on PR

For someone as great and popular as Messi, it would be common to see a lot of PR made about him by his team, but as it turns out, that's not the case, which is today's entry topic.

On Twitter, although he doesn't have an official Twitter page, there's his PR team, Messi Team. But upon further inspection, it seems more marketed towards Adidas than Messi. This has been noted since there's q strong belief that Team Messi could do much more when it comes to Messi's PR (only 1 main tweet since December 2019 which was his 6th Ballon d'Or). This is because it's managed by Adidas, but Messi still has control over the account's PR.

Which leads to the questions, what's his stance on Messi Team's PR for him? Well, he prefers his PR team not boast his stature, being very strict on this manner. More bluntly, as and ex freelance graphic designer from Team Messi, said: "He is of the opinion that PR is for the weak and that it just falsifies what a player does or doesn't do on the pitch.". Even Messi Team's lets us know of this, with one of the last advertisements saying "Let your feet do the talking" after he won the 2019 The Best.

It's logical to assume this extends to his other branches of PR other than Twitter. In conclusion, his own humbleness doesn't let him get much help from PR, since he'd rather do his magic on the pitch and let the world be the witness.

Who has Messi voted for in the Ballon d'Or and The Best?

Since September 2011, Messi has worn Argentina's captain armband consistently and therefore has voted for his top 3 best players of the year since then both in the Ballon d'Or and The Best. Who has he voted for in the past years? That will be the topic of today's entry.

In 2011, the first time he made a vote in the Ballon d'Or, he voted Xavi 1st, Iniesta 2nd, and Agüero 3rd. In 2012, the same 3 people appeared, but it was now Iniesta 1st, Xavi 2nd, and Agüero 3rd. The following year, 2013, he voted for Iniesta and Xavi once again, 1st and 2nd place respectively, but he put his new team-mate Neymar in 3rd place. In 2014, he put Di María 1st, Iniesta 2nd, and Mascherano 3rd, showing he appreciated his team-mates' efforts in the 2014 World Cup. The last year he voted on the Ballon d'Or was in 2015, voting for Suárez 1st, Neymar 2nd, and Iniesta 3rd. The pattern seen here is that he always voted for his team-mates, showing his appreciation for their efforts.

Going now to The Best, in the 2016 edition he voted Suárez 1st, Neymar 2nd, and Iniesta 3rd, following his trend from previous years to vote his team-mates. In 2017, he voted Suárez 1st, Iniesta 2nd, and Neymar 3rd, and in 2018 he changed things up and voted Modric 1st, Mbappé 2nd, and Ronaldo 3rd, neither of them being a team-mate of Messi, although realistically there was no team-mate of his that made a top-3 performance. In 2019, he voted Mané 1st, Ronaldo 2nd, and De Jong 3rd, once again voting for his bitter rival. Finally, in 2020, he voted Neymar 1st, Mbappé 2nd, and Lewandowski 3rd.

From this, we can take that he tends to vote for his team-mates, maybe as a sign of gratitude to their work (he is humble after all). To end the entry, here is a picture that shows who Messi has voted for in the last years (including Ronaldo as well).

All of Messi's Ballon d'Or presentations

With 6 Ballon d'Ors to his name, he has obviously had a presentation for all 6 of them, which will be today's subject. While many players could dream of presenting even 1 Ballon d'Or in front of their club's crowd, Messi has had the privilege of doing so multiple times.

The first one was in 2009, in Barcelona's Camp Nou game against Espanyol. He walked up the stairs to the pitch, got handed the Ballon d'Or by his mother, and proudly showcased it to the crowds while they and his team-mates clapped for him. He didn't play the game though to give him rest.

The second one was in 2010, although he made the presentation in early January of 2011. Against Real Betis at home, it was Puyol this time who handed him the award, as the claps were heard across the entire stadium and Messi posed with the award. He later scored a hat-trick in the game to confirm his superiority over the rest.

The third time was in January of 2012, once again against Real Betis. With the Ballon d'Or sitting in a table, Messi lifted it and showed it to the crowds, same as always. Barça also showcased their Club World Cup in the same presentation. This time, he scored a brace in the game to top it off.

January 2013 rolled around and Messi won the Ballon d'Or for the 4th time in a row. His presentation was against Málaga. All 4 Ballon d'Ors were shown between two tables, and Messi grabbed his 4th to show to the public. He later scored a goal and gave 2 assists in Barcelona's 3-1 win.

After some wait, the 5th Ballon d'Or came in 2015, and Messi presented it to the Camp Nou against Athletic Bilbao in La Liga. He got handed the award, showed it off to the crowds, and then the team posed with the Ballon d'Or. He scored a penalty early on but unfortunately got subbed off at half-time for some thigh problems.

Finally, in 2019, Messi won his 6th (and last at the moment) Ballon d'Or. This time, it was truly special, since his son, Thiago Messi, was the one that gave him the award. He went on to score a hat-trick in the game, his last since then.

All of Messi's Ballon d'Or celebrations were special in their own way, and also amplify his greatness as the only player to have won 6 Ballon d'Ors. I hope you liked this entry and I'll see you in the next blog.

When Messi got his first GOAT shout

March 21st, 2010. Messi had recently won a Ballon d'Or and was one of, if not the best player in the 2009/10 season so far. Barcelona was in a very tight race with Real Madrid, with 65 points each in 26 games played. Barcelona faced Real Zaragoza away and looked to continue the race and overtake Real Madrid.

Only 4 minutes in, he scored with a good header after a cross from Pedro, giving Barça the lead. Later in the second half, he won the ball from Ander Herrera, got past Jarošík, tricked Contini and got past him as well, and made a powerful shot to the opposite post that went in. This goal would later be nominated for the Puskás Award. He then made a great pass to Zlatan to open goal but he missed this. Fortunately, he scored shortly after with an out-the-box shot to the near post to seal his hat-trick. Near the end of the game, he flicked Ponzio and got inside the box, got past Contini, and after sidestepping Jarošík, he got fouled by Contini, winning a penalty. Instead of taking it and getting his hat-trick, he gave it to Zlatan, who slotted it in and consolidated Barça's 4-2 win.

His stats from the game were: 3 goals, 1 non-Opta assist (penalty won), 4 SoT (8 in total), 0.59 xG, 12 dribbles out of 14, 2 key passes, 0.79 xA, 1 aerial duel won out of 2, 2 tackles, 26 passes out of 30, and 69 touches, a perfect 10/10 performance.

The press went insane after that fantastic performance, with the titles "God of football", "Brutal Messi", "Messi from another world", "He invents football every day", "Supermessi scores 8 goals in a week", "Another masterpiece from Messi", "Messi is from another galaxy "," Maradonian exhibition from the Nº 10 of Barca, who signs another hat-trick " and" What a way to make plays with the ball tied to the feet ". And even more impressive, Joan Laporta, Barcelona's president, said "Messi is the best player in the world and in history", as per numerous sources. Despite being only 22 years old, Messi had already been named the best player in history by someone as important as Laporta.

Barcelona ended up winning the league by 3 points over Real Madrid, so those 3 points won in this game were crucial to winning the league title. And later, he won the Ballon d'Or for the second time, showing the world his greatness. I hoped you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.

Barcelona has a new president!

After the votes were counted, Joan Laporta came on top with 54.28% of the votes (30.184 votes). Font came in 2nd with 29.99% (16.679 votes) and Freixa was last with 8.58% (4.769 votes), with 3628 spoilt votes and 351 blank votes. Laporta was the club's president from the 2003/04 season all the way to the 2009/10 season.

Messi casted his vote at around 11:43 AM (CET), and he brought his son Thiago Messi with him as well.

In that period of time, Barcelona won 4 La Ligas, 1 Copa del Rey and 2 UCLs, achieving the historical Sextete as well. Messi scored 127 goals and made 47 assists in 214 games while Laporta was in charge, won a Ballon d'Or in 2009 (and a second one in 2010, where Laporta was in charge half of the year), and 2 Golden Boots as well.

With Bartomeu gone and Laporta being Barcelona's president once again, hopefully we can go back to the good old days, and see a happy Messi once again.

When Messi consolidated himself as one of the best in the world in Stanford Bridge

After easily getting 1st in their group, Barcelona got Chelsea in the UCL R16, the hardest rival they could've gotten. Messi had recently recovered from a thigh muscle strain which left him sidelined for 10 days, so he probably wasn't even at 100%, but he still got started on that February 22nd of 2006.

In his first actions of the game, he got a shot on target which Cech saved, won a foul, stole a ball from Lampard, and made a great pass in the box which didn't end up converted. He later received a brutal foul on his knee from Del Horno that wasn't even called a foul by the referee, but later got justice as Del Horno tackled him again and he received a red card this time. Despite these constant attacks on him, he remained firm on the game.

In the second half, he first made a shot on target, then a good pass inside the box that found nobody, a shot that hit the crossbar, and then received a foul inside the box from Terry not given. Clearly, despite the referee not being on his side, he was the best player on the pitch, and he later received high praise from multiple media outlets regarding his performance.

Afterward, he was in ESM's Team of the Month, ESM's Team of the Season, won the FIFPro Young Player of the Year, the World Soccer Young Player of the Year, got nominated for the Laureus World Sports Award for Breakthrough of the Year, and most importantly, got nominated for the 2006 Ballon d'Or, where someone voted him as the 4th best player in the world behind Cannavaro, Buffon and Henry, quite a big achievement and proof that people already saw him as one of the best players in the world at that time.

What if scenario: Messi chooses Spain

As we all know, Messi plays for the Argentinean national team, but things could have been different considering that Messi is also a Spanish citizen and could've chosen Spain instead of Argentina. Today, I'll try to take a look at how Messi would have performed if he had chosen to play for Spain instead of Argentina, so without further ado, let's look at this what-if scenario.

We'll start by June 2004, with the POD that Messi accepts Spain's invitation to join their national team for the upcoming 2004 UEFA European Under-19 Championship. He would have most likely won the tournament (as per OTL) and would have also been the top scorer and the best player. In the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship itself, Spain would've probably won the tournament (they were the favourites to win it before Messi's Argentina kicked them out) and Messi would have won the Golden Boot and be awarded the MVP as he did with Argentina. After those performances, he would have probably made his debut against Uruguay in a friendly.

In the 2006 World Cup, he would get few minutes due to his injury, probably making his debut against Saudi Arabia as they were already leading, but that would be it. But from 2007 onwards is where the fun really begins. He makes Spain's life easier in the Euro qualifiers which lands them in first place. The following year, 2008, Spain wins the Euro with Messi as their main man. This may or may not be enough to win him the Ballon d'Or.

In the following years, Messi gives Spain the Confederations Cup, which they lost in OTL, and probably wins the Golden Ball. In 2010, just like in OTL, Spain wins the 2010 World Cup now with Messi as their main man, perhaps winning the Golden Ball once again and maybe even the Golden Boot. 2012 comes around and Messi probably becomes the MVP in the 2012 Euro. Messi's Spain would have most likely been an unstoppable force at their peak. The 2013 Confederations Cup would have most likely fallen to Spanish hands as well and could have maybe pushed Messi to another Ballon d'Or. And what I haven't mentioned is that more successes in the national team mean higher morale and therefore better performances from him consistently, which could in fact have given him the Ballon d'Or this year and maybe following years as well.

In 2014 things become tricky, since Costa was the main problem and it could have been solved by Messi since he had good chemistry with the team + The massive quality, but it's hard to say. In the 2016 Euro, once again it's hard to say, but Spain would have most likely gotten first instead of second in the group, and if they beat Portugal in the Round of 16, they would have probably won the tournament, which would have resulted in another Golden Ball for Messi. Finally, in the 2018 World Cup a 1st/2nd place finish doesn't seem too far off since after kicking Russia they would have faced Croatia and England, which would mean another Golden Ball for Messi as well.

Overall, Messi's international career would have been incredible, and considering how similar it once was to Barcelona in terms of tactics, having great chemistry with a good amount of his Barcelona team-mates and having the ability to play against weaker teams more often, he would have probably scored over 100 goals, breaking Ali Daei's record most likely.

Messi's performance in 2018

One of the biggest examples of Messi being underrated, or perhaps normalizing the impossible so much that it didn't become as impressive from him, is him finishing 5th in the 2018 Ballon d'Or, a disgrace as I will show shortly. Without further ado, let's look at what Messi did in 2018.

First comes the 2018 World Cup, which I already talked about earlier. In summary, he deserved to be in the ToTT (if Ronaldo deserved it so did Messi) and overall did a great performance.

In the 2017/18 UCL knockout stages, he generated all 4 goals against Chelsea in the Round of 16, and after being MoTM in the first leg against Roma, the team crumbled in the second leg and got eliminated. Despite that, Messi was still Barcelona's best player and overall probably the 5th best player in the game (better than half of Roma's team). He was also the best player in the tournament until Barcelona got kicked out.

In La Liga, he was both the champion and the best player by quite a distance. He also won the Golden Boot. Some minor achievements include being the MoTM in the Copa del Rey final (and paving Barcelona's way into that final) and being the MoTM in the Supercopa de España against Sevilla as well, assisting Dembélé's winning goal.

To get a better picture of just how dominant Messi was, let's take a look at this:

As we can see, Messi made a lot of achievements in 2018, but even then, he only got 5th in the Ballon d'Or and The Best, probably the biggest injustice in its history.

The "False 9" Messi

May 1st, 2009, the day before El Clásico. Pep Guardiola explained to Messi something that would later prove to revolutionize football. He explained to him the false 9 position and wanted him to play it against Real Madrid. The rest, as they say, is history. Today's topic will be about that, so without further ado, let's get into it.

The day after that meet-up with Pep, Messi dropped a masterclass against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, assisting the first goal, scoring the third and fifth goals, and pre-assisting the sixth goal. His new position in the game definitely made an impact on the pitch as Barcelona thrashed Real 6-2 on their own ground.

He won the Ballon d'Or that same year, and the false 9 position seemed to accustom him greatly since he was the best player in the 2009/10 season as well, scoring 47 goals (winning the Golden Boot as well) and giving 11 assists in 53 games with Barcelona, and winning yet another Ballon d'Or later on. In the 2010/11 season, he was once again the best player in the world, with astounding performances both in La Liga and the Champions League, which meant yet another Ballon d'Or rolling in for him, scoring 53 goals and giving 23 assists in 55 games with Barcelona.

In the 2011/12 season, we would see perhaps the best version of Messi, racking up to 73 goals (winning the Golden Boot once again) and 29 assists for a total of 102 goals generated in the season with Barcelona. This won him the Ballon d'Or, obviously. In the 2012/13 season, he was in his most clinical form ever, but injuries did cause some problems for him. Nevertheless, he got 60 goals (winning yet another Golden Boot) and 15 assists in 50 games. In his final season as a false 9, the 2013/14 season, he got 41 goals and 14 assists in 46 games. After that, MSN was consolidated and Suárez moved into the central position, pushing Messi to be a right-winger once again like he was under Rijkaard. Although he did play from time to time as a false 9, using Suárez as a reference point, he was mainly a right-winger or an attacking midfielder from that point on.

Overall, his role as a false 9 was to cause a lot of tactical problems to the opposing team, leaving them in a no-win situation. If he was pressed by a defensive midfielder, it would free up space for Xavi and Iniesta to put the ball forward. If a centreback pressed him, then that would leave a flank open to exploit, and if he wasn't pressed, then he could just run havoc with his skillset.

As we can see, Messi's performance while being a false 9 was spectacular for the most part, and due to his tactical importance, goals and assists don't do justice to just how vital he was for Barcelona in that period.

The consistency of the GOAT

Consistency is another thing which Messi is known for, not only because he has been world-class for multiple years, having a 10-year gap between his first and last Ballon d'Or, but also because of some individual qualities which he has been stellar in for over a decade. That's what the entry is about today, the specific qualities, and without further ado, let's get into the numbers.

Dribbling

His dribbling numbers were already spectacular in his early days, having 7.67 dribbles per game in the 2005/06 season according to StatsBomb, and while he's downgraded to 4.95 dribbles per game in the 2018/19 season, that is still an incredibly high amount, plus the number of minutes played massively increased. If we go to Opta's dribbles, we can see the following:

Clearly now can we understand the magnitude of how good he has been at dribbles for so much time.

Shooting

I already covered this subject earlier, which refers to xG. What I mean is that, on every single La Liga season since his first one, he has overperformed his xG, which is a very hard task, especially when done so consistently for 16 consecutive seasons.

Playmaking

In terms of assists, he has given over 10 assists since 2007, giving 20+ in many years as well. Other numbers include key passes, where he has done 40+ key passes in La Liga every single season since 2007/08. He's also attempted at least 30 troughballs in every single La Liga season except 2017/18. Remarkable numbers that show his great playmaking abilities.

Free kicks

Since 2008, he has scored at least 1 free kick every year, getting even 3+ every year between 2012 and 2019, amassing a total of 53.

These are only a few of the things Messi has been consistently good at, and perhaps I'll do a part 2 someday. But until then, see you in the next entry.

Messi's robbed Ballon d'Ors...

There has been debate about the Ballon d'Ors that Messi deserved, but in this post I will explain in detail why Messi deserved all the Ballon d'Ors that he won, specifically those that are contested by some, which are: 2010, 2012, 2015, 2019. I'll go one by one, detailing why Messi deserved them (and explaining why his rival didn't deserve it more). I will use the ratings from WhoScored, a site created by football analysts who created an algorithm that analyzes more than 200 statistics and gives the player ratings. It starts from the 2009/10 season (varies by league but starts from there for major leagues), and is respected by many.

2010 Ballon d'Or

This is probably the most controversial Messi has ever won, but I'll explain why he deserved to win it. You have to know that, according to WhoScored, Messi was the best player in La Liga and in the Champions League, in addition to being 6th in the World Cup Golden Ball (I did not take it from WhoScored since they did not analyze that tournament). Now let's look at his first rival: Iniesta; He was 5th in the World Cup Golden Ball, but he was not the best player on his team in La Liga or in the Champions League (beaten by Xavi in ​​both). Xavi, on the other hand, fell behind Messi in the World Cup Golden Ball, La Liga, and in the Champions League. Sneijder, despite being the 2nd best player in the World Cup, he was beaten by Lúcio as the best player on his team in Serie A (in addition to Maicon and Milito) and in the Champions League, having lower ratings than Messi as well. With this in mind, Messi deserved the Ballon d'Or in 2010.

Credit: EFE/Alessandro Della Bella

2012 Ballon d'Or

This will be easier to defend. Messi was the best player in La Liga and in the Champions League, as well as breaking the record for the most goals in a calendar year. On the other hand, Ronaldo fell behind Messi in both competitions and had a lower rating that year. It should be noted that he was one of the best in Euro 2012, but it is not enough for him to deserve the award more than Lio. Iniesta is also there, but he was not the best player on his team in the European Championship (beaten by Xavi, Busquets, David Silva, Xabi Alonso and Alba), nor was he in La Liga (narrowly beaten by Fàbregas and Alves) or in the Champions League (beaten by Xavi, Busquets, Alves and Fàbregas). Again, a victory for Messi.

Credit: Reuters/Michael Buholzer

2015 Ballon d'Or

The same thing is repeated, Messi the best player in La Liga and in the Champions League, in addition to the Copa América. Ronaldo was beaten in both, obviously. The same thing happens with Neymar, behind Messi in both competitions and in the Copa América as well. Easy for Messi.

Credit: Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann

2019 Ballon d'Or

Best player in La Liga and in the Champions League, as we expected, as well as being the 10th best in the Copa América (6 or more games). On the other hand, although Van Dijk was the best defender in the Premier League and the second-best in the UEFA Nations League, he was not in the Champions League (5th compared to defenders who played 11 or 12 games) and considering Messi's clear superiority in La Liga and in the Champions League, the victory is given to him. It should be noted that Ronaldo was not close to Messi's level in the domestic league level or the Champions League, and played only two games in the UEFA Nations League so not much can be said, in addition to having a lower average WhoScored rating, so it doesn't affect Messi either.

Credit: EFE

The most recognized records of Messi

In this entry, I will talk about the most recognized records of Lionel Messi, because if I talked about all of them, they would not enter in just one.

Top winner of the Ballon d'Or 

In the years 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, and 2019 he won the Ballon d'Or, 6 in total, the highest amount a player has achieved in history. It also counts within itself the record of most Ballon d'Ors won consecutively, with 4 won between 2009 and 2012.

Credit: Marca

Top winner of the Golden Boot

In the 2009/10, 2011/12, 2012/13, 2016/17, 2017/18, and 2018/19 seasons he won the Golden Shoe, again having 6 in total, 2 more than Ronaldo, his closest competitor.

Credit: Marca

Barcelona's top scorer

With 641 goals to his name, he is by far the club's top scorer, with a difference of 411 over César Rodríguez. He broke it against Sevilla on March 17, 2012, and no one has even come close since.

Credit: Marca

Top scorer of the Argentine team 

With 71 goals in 142 games, Messi surpasses Batistuta as the top scorer for the albiceleste. He broke the record after his renowned free-kick against the United States in the Copa América Centenario (or against Colombia in the Qualifiers months later if he is counted 56 goals).

Credit: AS

Top scorer in a European league

With 448 goals, Messi recently broke the record against Osasuna. The record belonged to Bican in the Czechoslovak league.

Credit: Mundo Albiceleste

Most goals in a calendar year

In the year 2012, Messi achieved the astronomical amount of 91 goals in just 69 games, breaking Gerd Müller's previous record of 85.

Credit: FC Barcelona