The diminutive genius talks us through the most iconic moments of his illustrious career, with journalists, teammates and opponents offering insight and analysis into the goals and games that will define his legacy.
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00:00RONALDINIO
00:08Contra Ronaldinho, este de primeras.
00:12wer Messi que puede lograr el gol, el gol, el gol.
00:15Vaya bolazo.
00:17De Leo Messi, la conexión interés talar con Ronaldinho.
00:23La verdad es que en ese momento no pensaba nada.
00:25I was enjoying playing in the Camp Nou and being able to participate in the 1st of Barcelona.
00:35The truth is that they didn't start at the moment of the goal.
00:55I was enjoying playing in the Camp Nou and being able to participate in the Camp Nou and being able to participate in the Camp Nou.
01:17The Camp Nou and being able to participate in the Camp Nou and being able to participate in the Camp Nou.
01:36I felt a little nervous and with a lot of fun.
01:40I had a lot of anxiety for being able to participate, because it was so expected for me.
01:50So I was a little impatient.
01:53I had been playing with them for a long time and I had all the tranquility and the confidence necessary
02:03of the whole team and the team to be able to participate with tranquility.
02:09But I remember that it was a very special day for me, for what it meant, for the dream I was looking for.
02:25To be honest, there wasn't much of a buzz about Messi making his debut with the team.
02:30Because at the time it was just a kid that came in with number 30 with a shirt that was bigger than his size really.
02:35So when he actually came up into the first team to train and he had already jumping teams because he had been in the B-side not for long.
02:45But obviously, like I realized under the recommendation of some of the coaches in the academy that he was a special talent.
02:52So I decided to bring him into the first team.
02:54And at the end of that first training session, Ronaldinho approached somebody and said that guy who just come in, 17 year old, is going to be better than me.
03:06This is Ronaldinho who was the number one in the world at the time, but realized that there was something very, very special there.
03:11Well, it was a very fast game.
03:23So Ronaldinho looked after him and Ronaldinho wanted to give him the ball.
03:25And then of course Ronaldinho asked him to jump on the game.
03:27to throw it on top, it was all done to define it in that way.
03:35It was a very nice moment and the way they celebrated it with me,
03:41the joy of everyone, it was very nice.
03:57It was an Argentinian jumping on the back of what it was at the time,
04:01the best player in the world, Brazilian.
04:03So Brazilian and Argentinian, but they got on very well
04:06and you could see in there that Ronaldinho had a special feeling,
04:10and still has, for Messi and vice versa as well.
04:13That relationship grew and that allowed, for good and bad reasons,
04:18allowed Messi to learn a lot.
04:27It was a very beautiful day, for what it meant to be a goal in the World Cup.
04:45I think it was the second game, the first game I hadn't entered,
04:49I had to go for a while and make a goal and it was very nice.
04:53We played Serbia, one of the toughest defenders in Europe at the time,
04:56I think he got to the World Cup with, I think, zero goal conceded.
05:01So that was a great game.
05:03There were some great goals, some great football.
05:05There was a goal that we all remember that we touched the ball 27 times,
05:09I think Cambiazo scored.
05:11Messi started on the bench, I think, and then he came on later.
05:14And then he added to that festival.
05:16We smashed to pieces, one of the toughest defenders in world football.
05:21But then we thought, you know, we did okay.
05:25Maybe it's fine.
05:26Messi coming in, bringing something extra, but not at the time.
05:31He was a good player, a very good player, but not what he was about to come.
05:35The final game was about to come.
05:37What do you think about the Clásico game?
05:51To make those three goals in the Clásico was incredible.
05:55It was beautiful to make three goals against Madrid,
06:00because it's a game where everyone can see it.
06:07What do you think about the Clásico game?
06:10Leo Messi really changes the mood of everyone.
06:15When Leo Messi sees it in his eyes,
06:19I know he sees it since he was 16 years old,
06:22I see it in his eyes when he decides to win the games.
06:28I see it in his eyes when he is able to create in the field
06:34and he has an absolute psychosis in the rival.
06:37He, like Ronaldo, the gordito, the phenomenon,
06:41provoca fear.
06:44And that fear inmovilizes the rival.
06:47It's one of the few futbolists who is capable of congeling the image.
06:53It seems like the rest of the defense, they don't move.
06:56It seems like if they were congelados by the effect of Leo Messi.
07:00Leo Messi provoca that effect.
07:02And that is, above all, in the players of Madrid.
07:04What do you think about the game?
07:16No, the truth is that I don't think about the game when I am in the field.
07:22It's a good game.
07:23And it's going on and, well, it's like it's going on.
07:27It's like it's going on, it's going to open the space,
07:29it's going to find the path to continue.
07:31And, well, it's like the goal that it is.
07:34But just getting the ball, I don't know.
07:38What I always remember was a game in training, the boys from Barça B, we always mix the team together.
07:46I was with a player from Barça B, where Messi took care of him, and I was behind, against the goal.
07:51I said, don't enter, don't enter.
07:55Then the guy went back and went back.
07:57I said, stop, stop.
07:58And when he went to shoot, we just did it like that.
08:01The two on the floor, just did it like that.
08:04So, if you enter, he'll be dribbling, if you wait, he'll be dribbling too.
08:08So it's almost impossible to mark him.
08:11Messi, we've been fighting since the base category.
08:15When Messi came to football in 2005, the World Cup in Germany, we made the semifinals, Brazil and Argentina.
08:22And he was the best player in the game, he was the best player in the competition.
08:27So, everyone saw that there was a phenomenon.
08:31Everyone goes firm on him, gives a lot of pressure on him, and he doesn't answer anything.
08:35He doesn't complain.
08:36I've never seen him complain of a stronger point.
08:39This is the difference.
08:40Everyone knows that the more you hit, he'll come to the top.
08:43So, it's cool.
08:44I admire him.
08:45I've never seen him.
09:01That championship, that journey, was one of the most specials in my career,
09:06one of the most remembered, the most beautiful,
09:09for what the Olympic Games mean,
09:11not only for being a champion,
09:13we had the chance to get it,
09:15but also for the life that I had to live in the little time
09:20we were in the Olympic Games.
09:22I have a very beautiful memory of that championship.
09:26Well, the Olympics were an outstanding death.
09:29We tried many times, we lost finals,
09:32and it was special.
09:34Bielsa convinced everybody that it was worth it.
09:38Leo, I think he had these issues with Barcelona about being released.
09:44He managed to get there.
09:46It was very important.
09:47It was an outstanding that we won World Cups,
09:49but the Olympic Games is something that we really, really wanted.
09:52In fact, our neighbors, the Brazilians,
09:54they had to wait a bit longer than us,
09:56and they also waited for a long time.
09:58So the Olympic football, it's not a World Cup,
10:00but it's very, very important.
10:01It was something that Leo Messi was fundamental to achieve.
10:06But for anybody to doubt what he's been doing for Argentina,
10:13it's outrageous, and I think they probably will realize when he's gone.
10:18In a way, Argentina is living a golden era,
10:22because they've been in a World Cup final,
10:24they've been in two American Cup finals,
10:27and when you win or lose, it's just down to little details.
10:32It could have gone one way or the other.
10:34Some of them, of course, were goals in extra time,
10:38or were wins at penalty shootouts.
10:41So to say that Leo Messi is not doing well with Argentina
10:45is basically not realizing that they are living a special moment.
10:49Well, it can happen, right?
10:51They're partitions, they're different ways.
11:00I also played Madrid in 4-4.
11:05There are circumstances that are given by them.
11:07Partitions that are made by one or another are decided in that way.
11:11Well, for sure it's not the easiest player to stop, you know, he has so many
11:41qualities and he can do so many different things that it's difficult to find out how to stop him.
11:49I was in that match, I remember when we ended the match, we came back together in the flight
11:56and I said, have you seen the best match of Leo Messi? He said no, the best match will be the next match.
12:04But that day, you saw the faces of the people in the Bernadéu and everyone said,
12:11oh my God, why Messi is the Barça?
12:14Yes, obviously in that moment I thought, I imagined that goal and well, I did it and thank you, it came out and it was a very important goal for me, in the individual, for the team, for how
12:41the final was, it was one of my goals the most beautiful for me.
12:48The truth is that at that moment it seemed difficult to win with Ferdinand in front, but it fell right where I was, where I didn't have a mark, and it was just the center for me.
13:03What was the best match?
13:10We always tried to defend ourselves well, we had a very good team, we had the Ferdinand, the Vida, the Patricio, we had the experienced players in football
13:22and we knew we would be playing with a great quality team.
13:25At the same time we had to defend ourselves, but we had players to attack like Cristiano Ronaldo, like Tev, like Rune, like Disson Parque, like Giggs.
13:32So, for us, we were at the same level of Barcelona this year, because we had already won the English Championship,
13:38and we were also disputing the second Champions League team, so we were so confused.
13:43That was the moment in the game where we were at the top of Barcelona, where Tevys had lost a ball, where he had hit, he had hit, he had hit, he had hit, he had hit.
13:59We were at the top of Barcelona.
14:01At the moment, we didn't care about it, and we ended up making the goal in this.
14:04The cross of Daniel.
14:06The 2009 Champions League final started really in the Clásico previously, because just before the Clásico, Pepe Guardiola asked very late in the day, Leo Messi, to come to the training ground.
14:22Messi doesn't live far away from it.
14:25And shot him some clips, some videos and said, you know that space here, in between the holding midfielders and the centre-backs, I want you to play there.
14:32That was the beginning of the false nine role that he played for Barcelona.
14:37Barcelona killed Real Madrid, but of course, it seems to me that Manchester United had not studied that game properly,
14:43because what happened in the Champions League final was that Messi started on the right-hand side, Eto'o was in the centre of the attack,
14:51and after ten minutes, having Cristiano Ronaldo had a chance for Manchester United that could have put them ahead,
14:59still 0-0, and Pepe Guardiola asked Eto'o and Messi to change places, so Eto'o went onto the right-hand side,
15:06Messi came inside, and then he became not just a false nine, but linked as well with the midfield.
15:12They created superiority in the midfield.
15:14Manchester United did not know how to deal with that, and basically that was the beginning of the victory of Barcelona.
15:22What a nice thing to do is to be the goalkeeper in a great league, so important league,
15:44I remember when he beat the record, I talked to Leo, he was a mythic record, he had an absolute record, and he told me, I don't play for the records, I play to pass it well.
16:11This is a player that my generation have not seen before, I don't think we've ever seen before, and it's down to the consistency of his efforts, his performances, in big games as well, the fact that he's carried a team like Barcelona to win everything, and Barcelona have won with Pep Guardiola, with Tito Villanova, with Tata Martino, with Luis Enrique, and in the middle of all that, there was one thing coinciding, and that was Messi.
16:40So we're talking about the team that perhaps is one of the greatest in history, certainly one that has changed history, but again, it coincides that has Messi in it.
16:49The truth is that it was a long day, because everything was done, being the 500 goal, the 3-2 goal in the last minute, a game where if we didn't win, we practically didn't get away from the league.
17:13It was a goal that gave us hope to continue to dream of the league, a game where we deserved to win by the way it was given, and well, winning in the last minute was very special for all the barcelonists.
17:29For me, because he's the best player in the world, he managed to be 10 years old at the same level, and his level is different from the rest.
17:41To be able to do it for 10 years, it's something very little or almost nothing.
17:47After that, he adds up to the quality that he has, and he's already transformed into the best of history.
17:56I think that the goal is not all in a game or a player.
18:15I think that he's a great player in the world.
18:25I really want to be a surreal player, a player out of the world.
18:28One of the greatest in the last years, and he's so influential for Barcelona.
18:46One of the greatest in the world is that he can do it simply.
18:54In the training, he does things that no one does, but in a way that he doesn't even have to do it.
19:02So, I think that's the difference.
19:04One of the greatest of the players is that he's a great player.
19:12The most important player to talk about him is that he's a lot of comments.
19:16What he does in the field is...
19:18...is inexplicable.
19:19A great player.
19:25Leo Messi is a source of happiness.
19:27Happiness to the highest level, right?
19:29Here they say that Leo Messi is better than doing love with your partner.
19:33Because it's more prolonged than that Leo Messi.
19:37And that's what people feel here in Barcelona.
19:45This question about Messi being the greatest player ever.
19:48It's one that perhaps in ten years' time we'll look back and say...
19:51...why didn't we even ask?
20:03The class of money that she did Jim pass us through on the clock.
20:07Here we go
20:09and leave it for the rest of the night, then we take aул...
20:12Remember, that the guy wants to talk to Matt Manley on March.
20:13So the first time he will use it, we're missing how to calculate Terry's back tonight.
20:16So of course, who will add a check?
20:19She made a check.
20:21asaki route.
20:22This space here is the university path to join the students.
20:24The world is in the restaurant in London and the world.
20:26We have beenعت Abi unters истории.
20:28And I look back in better数 from Qatar corp.