WATCH: The 10th anniversary of Lionel Messi's first Barcelona goal
The shaggy-haired Argentine striker scored his first goal in a Barcelona uniform 10 years ago. He hasn't looked back since.
By
Igor Mello
•
1 min read
Long before the fantastic MSN (Messi, Suarez, Neymar) trio that has taken the European soccer world by storm, Barcelona had Ronaldinho Samuel Eto'o and a 17-year-old youngster by the name of Lionel Messi.
Friday marked the 10th anniversary of Messi's first Barcelona goal in a competitive game.
Messi worked his way through Barca's youth system and become the youngest player to debut with the senior team at the time, generating an insane amount of buzz. The club knew he was prodigy, but it was hard to imagine he would become this dominant.
Messi made his league debut against RCD Espanyol on October 2004. Seven months later, in a match against Albacete, Frank Rijkaard inserted the shaggy-haired Argentine striker in for Eto'o and scored his first career Barca goal on thanks to the twinkle-toed wizardry of Ronaldinho. The Brazilian midfielder chipped in a pass over the back line that left Messi one-on-one with the keeper for a brief moment.
The rest was history.
The Argentine has flourished in a Blaugrana uniform, accumulating 403 goals and racking up four Ballon d'Or awards in 10 years.
In 2014, he surpassed Telmo Zarra to become the all-time leading goalscorer in La Liga history. Messi is only 27, and still has some years of dominant production left in him, especially with Luis Suarez and Neymar by his side.
His club is currently in first place ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid and is inching closer to another trip to the Champions League Final. Barcelona will have to overcome German powerhouse Bayern Munich in the semifinal round in order to punch a ticket to Munich for the final.
