FC Barcelona, on Thursday, officially announced that Lionel Messi has left the club this summer despite an agreement on the ground.
The club said they reached a point where it became clear that the deal will not be finalised.
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The 34-year-old star was expected to sign a new five-year contract with his wages to be slashed by 50 per cent but that did not work and he became a free agent.
Messi arrived Barcelona in 2000 when he was 13-year-old for a trial with his father Jorge and agent Fabian Soldini.
Nineteen years later, he has transformed into one of the finest players football has ever seen.
The Argentinian magician scored 603 goals for Barcelona, winning 33 honours along the way.
Below are six major records Messi holds you probably don’t know:
Highest Number of Ballon d’Or won
With six Ballon d’Or trophies to his credit, Messi is the winner with the highest number of the trophy.
He is followed by Christiano Ronaldo who has five.
Messi won the trophy in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2019.
Highest La Liga goal scorer
Messi tops the all-time chart of the highest scorers in La Liga.
In total, Messi scored 433 goals in La Liga which is the most goals ever scored in La Liga (433) by a single player.
Argentine top scorer
Messi has scored 70 goals and produced 38 assists for Argentina. Gabriel Batistuta lags behind the 32-year-old with 54 strikes.
Today, Messi has no close rival in the Argentine goal-scoring department.
Most ‘Golden Shoe’ awards
The former Barça star scored the most goals in Europe’s big five leagues.
He won the highest number of Golden Shoe award: in 2009/10, 2011/12, 2012/13, 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19.
LaLiga’s top hat trick scorer
Messi has scored more hat tricks than any other player in La Liga history.
His most recent hat trick was in a 5-2 win over Mallorca on December 7, 2019, which was his 35th, while his close rival in the professional Spanish football flight was Cristiano Ronaldo with 34.
Most Puskas Award nominee
Messi’s incredible performance and strikes gave him more Puskas Award nominations for best goal than any other player, even though he has never won the award.
