Lionel Messi Best Moments: Champions League Glory and Mazy Runs

On August 5, 2021, FC Barcelona announced that Lionel Messi will leave.

While Messi wanted to stay, financial difficulties restricted the club from registering him for the 2021-22 season. His departure marks the end of a two-decade-long stay with the Catalan giants, a club career no player will top. 

Lionel Messi Club Career

In 530 La Liga appearances, Messi scored 474 goals and assisted a further 217 times. He obliterated the all-time La Liga scoring record and won eight Pichichi awards, given to the league’s top scorer. Additionally, Messi took home six Golden Shoe trophies, handed out to Europe’s leading scorer from league play. His blistering end to the 2020-21 season, culminating with a Copa America win, puts Messi on track to win his seventh Balon D’Or. 

For all his talent, it is stunning how Messi only won four Champions Leagues, only one coming after 2011. Only appearing in the Round of 16 in his 2006 triumph, Messi’s prime in Europe’s prestigious competition came from 2009-2015, taking home three titles. Accompanying him was Dani Alves, the best right-back ever. Gerard Pique, one of the best center halves of his generation. Possibly the best midfield trio of all time in Busquets, Xavi, and Iniesta. Additionally, attacking greats such as Eto’o, Henry, Villa, Suarez, and Neymar all guided Barcelona’s success. 

The post below lists all his club accomplishments.

Financial Misfortune

Barcelona’s financial difficulties have been well documented over the past few years. After selling Neymar for a record €222 million in 2017, the board failed to reinvest that money properly. Signing Philippe Coutinho, Ousmane Dembélé, and Antoine Griezmann for €390 million, none of them have been able to reproduce Neymar’s impact. 

After scoring only five goals in 2018/19, the club shipped Coutinho on loan to Bayern Munich. Despite the talent, Dembélé has shown inconsistencies and is regularly injured. In 81 La Liga matches, he has 18 goals and 14 assists. Griezmann, thriving for Diego Simeone’s Atlétic Madrid as a second-striker, has only contributed 22 goals in 71 league games for Barça. President Joan Laporta has now placed him on the transfer list because of his high wages. Reports suggest Griezmann earns €880,000 per week before tax.

Lionel Messi Iconic Moments

Anyways, enough talking about Barcelona’s financial difficulties. I want to remember the great moments Lionel Messi gave to supporters. Since Messi has achieved everything at club level, incredible games and moments do not make the cut. This includes his 2007 hat trick at the Camp Nou against Real Madrid, his five-goal performance in the Champions League against Bayer Leverkusen, and the last-minute winner at the Bernabeau in 2017, where Messi held his jersey in front of the Madrid fans.

“Encara” Messi

As a 5-foot-7 Argentine magician, comparisons to Diego Maradona existed. Playing Getafe in the 2007 Copa Del Rey Semifinals, the nineteen-year-old scored a goal akin to the legend’s solo run in the 1986 World Cup. Receiving the pass from Xavi beyond the halfway line, Messi beat one Getafe player before nutmegging another. Then, he ran thirty yards with the ball at his feet before leaving both centrebacks in the mud. Messi then rounded the keeper and finished with his weak foot. Since it was 2007, thousands would watch his mazy run on youtube the morning after and compare it to Maradona’s. A young and tricky winger in 2007, his solo run helped announce himself globally. In a 2010 biography about Messi written by Luca Caioli, he interviewed world-class midfielder Deco about Messi’s goal. Here are his words: “It was the best goal I have ever seen in my life.” 

The commentary from Joaquim Maria Puyal made this goal iconic. “Encara,” meaning still in Catalan, as he maintained possession, was blurted out twenty-two times by Puyal, reverberating to this day. Indeed, during Messi’s two-goal display against Bolivia in this Summer’s Copa America, commentators echoed that phrase. 

2009 Champions League Final

Scoring his first Champions League Final goal, Messi’s seventieth-minute header bamboozled goalie Edwin Van der Sar. Despite not having to outjump a defender, his positioning was excellent getting in between Rio Ferdinand and John O’Shea. Additionally, Messi’s finish was not a bullet header where players get a running start and generate momentum. He jumped diagonally and contorted his body to meet the ball, all while falling, losing his boot in the process. The photo of Messi kissing his boot after effectively sealing the title remains engrained in fans’ minds today. Discussing Messi’s overall performance, the legendary centreback called the Final “possibly one of the most embarrassing nights of my life.”

2011 Champions League Semifinal First Leg and Final

Admittedly bending the rules, I included two games from Messi’s phenomenal 2011 Champions League campaign. Facing Real Madrid in the semis, he scored two goals at the Bernabeau to effectively seal the tie. Messi’s second, effortlessly taking the deft pass from Sergio Busquets and beating Lassana Diarra, Sergio Ramos, Raúl Albiol, and even Marcelo before wrongfooting Iker Casillas with his weak foot. Peter Drury’s “away from two, three, four. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful” takes the cake.

In the Final, he again played Manchester United off the park. His linkup with David Villa and Pedro was magnificent, and his synergy with Xavi and Iniesta murdered United midfield pivot of Michael Carrick and Ji-Sung-Park. Messi’s bullet from outside of the box beat Edwin Van der Sar made the score 2-1. Putting a dagger in United hearts, Messi’s dribble past Nani set up Villa for Barcelona’s third goal. Messi captured his third champions league at twenty-three years old and was on course for his third consecutive Balon D’Or. After his performance, footballing great Graeme Souness hailed Messi as the best player ever, a stunning remark for a player so young. 

2015 Champions League Semifinal First leg

Fans still reminisce about Messi’s second goal against Bayern Munich. With Messi giving Barça a 1-0 via a long-range blast, he toyed with world-class center back Boateng to embarrass the Bavarians and former manager, Pep Guardiola. Receiving the ball on the right channel from an Ivan Rakitic pass, Messi took three dribbles inside. Seemingly cutting in for a shot, Messi executed a slight body feint, throwing Boateng on the floor. With Boateng on the grass, he dribbled again with his left foot before a weak foot chip over Manuel Neuer. When players floor defenders like Messi did, the phrase “Boatenged” applies. Martin Tyler “It’s astonishing. Absolutely world-class” followed by the cheering crowd will live on for decades. 

2015 Copa Del Rey Final

Later in his 2015 Balon D’Or campaign, Lionel Messi lit up the Camp Nou. Before the goal, the commentators praised Athletic Bilbao’s impressive La Liga status of never being relegated despite their Basque-only policy. They discussed Bilbao because Messi received the ball sixty meters away from goal, seemingly maintaining no threat on goal. Messi then ran about fifty meters, dribbling and nutmegging his way past four defenders, before unleashing a near-post shot to beat the diving Iago Herrerín. This mazy solo run came in second place for Puskás Award voting, given to the calendar year’s best goal.