Messi and football tennis

One interesting variant to tennis is football tennis, where instead of using a racket, the object used is your body (except the arms, just like in football), while the rest remains relatively the same. Messi is no stranger to this sport, as we'll see in this entry.

Going back to 2005, there's footage of him playing football tennis with Tévez and then with Maradona himself. This was in the show 'Noche del 10'.

And continuing in 2005, he had played football tennis in the show Sin Cassette. He played with Pablo González at Plaza Rosario.

Now we go forward to 2007. This was once again in the show Sin Cassette. As we can see, Messi could easily do keepie-uppies and easily won the friendly match.

Moving forward to 2011, he played football tennis with some friends in Rosario on December 27th while he was on vacation.

In August 9th of 2014, Messi was making pre-season training with Barcelona and decided to play football tennis with his teammates. He even managed to do a bicycle kick and nail it.

Earlier in the year, he was doing some training with the national team previous to the 2014 World Cup, and he teamed up with Di María and Gago to play a 3-a-side football tennis match against Biglia, Agüero, and Lavezzi.

Later in the World Cup, specifically on June 20th prior to playing against Iran, Messi played a particular game of football tennis against Agüero. What separated both players was a fence, which separated the field from the tribune.

In June of 2015, preparing for the game against Jamaica, Messi played football-tennis alongside Di María.

In October of 2017, in a training with the national team prior to a World Cup qualifier against Peru, Messi did some football tennis with his teammates being Mascherano and Di María.

In May of 2018, preparing for the 2018 World Cup (with a friendly against Haiti beforehand), Messi played some football tennis and even did a bicycle kick, just like in 2014.

Then in June, Messi once again played football tennis with Argentina in preparation for the World Cup, playing alongside Di María and Mascherano.

In February of 2020, prior to a La Liga game against Eibar, Messi played football tennis alongside Vidal and once again did a bicycle kick.

As a side note, although not tennis, he played teqball with his son Thiago Messi. Antonella made a 4-second clip out of the match and Messi sent it on his Instagram account.

As we can see, football tennis can be a fun practice for Messi, and he has no problem with this variation, even taking some liberties and doing bicycle kicks from time to time, which he doesn't tend to do in football matches. That is all for today, so 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.

Messi swapping shirts

It's not often that we see Messi swapping shirts with other players, but it's clear that a lot of people would want a shirt from him so it does happen from time to time.

The first recorded instance was in June 24th, 2006, against Mexico in the 2006 World Cup R16. He swapped shirts with Rafael Márquez (team-mate of his in Barcelona at the time).

The next instance was in February 20th 2008, in the UCL R16 first leg against Celtic. Here, he swapped shirts with Celtic's captain Stephen Mcmanus after the final whistle, and both handshaked afterward.

In 2012, after the first leg 3-1 win against Bayer Leverkusen away in the 2011/12 UCL R16, Messi was seen swapping shirts with Czech defender Michal Kadlec, who had previously fought with his team-mate Friedrich over who would get the shirt. Coincidentally, both featured a year later on the Czech version of FIFA 14's cover.

He once again swapped shirts only 2 rounds later in the same UCL, when he swapped shirts with John Terry after the 2011/12 UCL semi-final first leg against Chelsea. He had previously faced the English defender multiple times in the Champions League.

Later on in the same year, he swapped shirts with his idol Pablo Aimar, after beating Benfica 2-0 with 2 assists from him.

In the same UCL season, after the end of the second leg between Barcelona and PSG, Messi and his compatriot Lavezzi exchanged shirts.

In September 2013, after winning 4-0 against Rayo Vallecano, he swapped shirts with Argentine striker Joaquín Larrivey.

In January 2014, he swapped shirts with Arda Turan after Barcelona and Atlético Madrid tied 0-0 in La Liga. He later joined Barcelona 1 ½ years later.

Next up is Argentina against Jamaica in the 2015 Copa América, which ended 1-0 for Argentina. At the end of the game, he swapped shirts with Jobi McAnuff, Jamaica's Nº 10.

Not long after, in August of that same year, he swapped shirts with Roma legend Totti to auction for Roma Cares & Fundación Barça.

The same year, in November, and involving Roma again, Messi exchanged shirts with Lucas Digne, defender of the Italian team.

In April 2017, after Barcelona got kicked out of the UCL on a 3-0 aggregate against Juventus, Chiellini and Bonucci fought over who would get Messi's jersey, which Bonucci ultimately won.

Then, in August, he swapped shirts with Alan Ruschel, one of the few survivors of Chapecoense's plane crash back in November 2016.

After the first-leg draw between Barcelona and Chelsea in the UCL R16, Messi and ex-team-mate Fabregas swapped shirts with eachother.

After the 2018 World Cup clash between Iceland and Argentina, Messi swapped shirts with Birkir Bjarnason.

In January 2019, after winning 2-1 against Getafe with a goal from Messi, he exchanged shirts with Getafe's goalkeeper Jaime Mata.

In March 2019, despite the known rivalry between Barcelona and Espanyol, young left-back Adria Pedrosa asked for Messi's shirt after the end of the game (which was won 2-0 thanks to Messi's brace). It shows that even fierce rivals admit his greatness.

In the Copa América of the same year, he exchanged shirts with Junior Moreno after Argentina won 2-0 against Venezuela.

In October, after beating Inter Milan 2-1 with an assist from him, he swapped shirts with his compatriot Lautaro Martínez.

In the same UCL season, in the first leg R16 game against Napoli, he swapped shirts with Lorenzo Insigne.

In October of the same year, he swapped shirts with Carlos Grueso from Ecuador, after Argentina won 1-0 with a goal from Messi.

Then, in December, he exchanged shirts with Italian legend Buffon after Barcelona lost 3-0 to Juventus.

In February of 2021, after beating Elche 3-0 with 2 goals from him, he exchanged shirts with Elche's goalkeeper, Edgar Badia, in a heartwarming scene.

And finally, the last one I found was when he swapped shirts with his countryman Icardi after PSG kicked Barça out of the UCL.

This has been my longest entry yet, and I worked very hard to find all of these, so I hoped you liked it and I'll see you in the next blog.

Barça get a huge win against Real Sociedad at Anoeta

Yesterday, Barcelona won 6-1 against Real Sociedad away in Messi's 768th game as a Barcelona player, breaking Xavi's record of 767. The first goal came from Griezmann, which was pre-assisted by Messi, then a goal from Dest (his first in La Liga) which was assisted by Messi with a great through-ball, then yet another goal from Dest, then a goal from Messi, then a goal from Dembélé assisted by Messi which was annulled for offside, then an actual goal from Dembélé not long after, a discount goal from Barrenetxea and finally a goal from Messi to finish the game. Messi's stats in the game were: 2 goals, 1 assist, 1 pre-assist, 1 big chance created, 3 SOT (5 in total), 7 dribbles, 2 key passes, 5 ground duels won, 1 foul won, 1 tackle, 8 pressures (2 successful), 63 passes and 101 touches, completing yet another 10/10 performance.

This was his performance on tape:

A very important victory against 5th place Real Sociedad puts us right where we were before, 2 points ahead of Real Madrid but 4 points behind Atlético Madrid, but now we have a difficult game off our back now. It is clear that Barça is serious about winning the title, and hopefully, considering some of Atlético's last games, they can drop points and Barcelona can finally get to 1st place again.

Meanwhile, Messi leads the Pichichi by 4 goals (23 to Suárez's 19) and is now the joint-top assist provider in La Liga alongside Kroos, Aspas, and Llorente, all with 8 assists, after having very low numbers at the beginning of the season.

Now comes the international break, although Messi won't play it due to some conflicts between South American national teams and FIFA, so it will be mainly Europe WC qualifiers. Action will come back in April 5th against Real Valladolid. But until then, see you in the next blog.

Messi vs the referees part 1

Messi has been harmed numerous times due to referees' decisions, and thus, I have decided to make a series of decisions made against Messi. The first part will cover some annulled goals against Messi, so without further ado, let's dive into it.

We'll first look at one of the most obvious but also had a big impact, which was against Real Betis away in the 2016/17 La Liga season. Despite clearly entering the goal, Alejandro Hernández Hernández didn't give it. The game ended 1-1 and Real Madrid later won the league.

Another obvious one, though less impactful, was against Valencia away in the 2017/18 La Liga season. Messi made a shot straight at the keeper and since he couldn't catch it properly, it went through him and entered the net, but Ignacio Villanueva gave no goal. The game ended 1-1, but Barcelona later won the league anyways by 14 points.

Going back to 2006, specifically to the 2006 World Cup R16 game against Mexico, Messi scored a goal in the dying minutes of the game to give Argentina the lead 2-1, but linesman Matthias Arnet gave a non-existent offside from Pablo Aimar which invalidated the play.

Going now to the title-defining game of the 2013/14 La Liga season against Atlético Madrid at home, Messi was wrongfully disallowed of a goal because of an offside, even though the ball came from Juanfran which invalidates the offside. This would have won Barcelona the league, and perhaps the Supercopa de España at the beginning of the next season.

And to end this 1st part, there's his goal wrongfully disallowed against Arsenal in the first leg of the 2010/11 UCL R16, even though he was onside. They lost 2-1 that game, but thankfully Messi made a masterclass against them in the second leg and then went on to win the tournament.

That is all for the 1st part. As I said there's a lot to cover so I'll continue in the 2nd part. But until then, I'll see you in the next blog.

Debunking a Myth: Mbappé is better than Messi was at his age

Due to Mbappé's recent performance against Barcelona, Mbappé has once again received shouts that he's better than Messi was at 22. Today, I will do my best to debunk that myth, so without further ado, let's compare the two.

At 22 years old, Messi won his first UCL being the star man (and his second being an important player of his team), and later won the Ballon d'Or as well (he was the 2nd-best player the two years prior). It was his historic Sextete year, being the main man behind all of it. On the other hand, Mbappé hasn't won a UCL yet nor is he even near to getting a Ballon d'Or (I doubt he will get it this year too), and he's never gotten into the top 3 of the Ballon d'Or either.

He was also the best dribbler in the world at only 21, with 8.4 dribbles per 90 in the 2007/08 season according to StatsBomb, while Mbappé has never gotten over 4 dribbles per 90 (2005/06 Messi had 7.4 per 90 and 2006/07 Messi had 7.1 per 90).

Another important thing to note is that Mbappé plays in a considerably easier league (since he plays for PSG), so his G/A tallies are a bit inflated, and he also plays the Euro and WC qualifiers, which has lead to and will keep leading to him playing against much weaker nations much more often. And France's midfield is much better than Argentina's, so the ball can go easier to him and he can score more often as well. This also debunks the World Cup argument, since Mbappé's team was filled with great players.

In summary, Messi was already one of the best players in the world at 20 and was the best dribbler in the world at 21, while Mbappé hasn't reached top 3 in the world yet at 22 and he plays in an easier league. This shows that Messi was a better player than Mbappé was at his age.