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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00:00Jokelo cross, the fast, Jokelo, Jokelo
00:03Jokelo, jokelo, jokelo, jokelo, jokelo, jokelo, jokelo
00:10Contra Ronaldinho, este de primeras
00:13Messi que puede lograr el gol, gol, gol, gol
00:16¡Vaya gola, gol!
00:18De Leo Messi
00:20La conexión interés a la re con Ronaldinho
00:24No, la verdad que en ese momento no pensaba nada
00:26to play in the Camp Nou, to be able to participate in the 1st of Barcelona.
00:36The truth is that they didn't start at the goal moment.
00:56The truth is that they didn't start at the goal, but they didn't start at the goal.
01:18Well, I felt a little nervous and with a lot of fun.
01:40I had a lot of desire, I had a lot of anxiety for being able to debut,
01:48because it was so expected for me, so I was a little impatient.
01:54I had been playing with them for a long time,
01:58and I had all the tranquility and the confidence necessary
02:04of the team and the team to be able to debut with tranquility.
02:09But I remember that it was a very special day for me,
02:13for 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
02:33with a shirt that was bigger than his size, really.
02:35So when he actually came up into the first team to train,
02:40and 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
02:51that he was a special talent, so I decided to bring him into the first team.
02:54And at the end of that first training session, Ronaldinho approached somebody and said,
03:02that 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,
03:09but realized that there was something very, very special there.
03:13It was a very fast game, where the archer stays at the middle of the road,
03:26and where the player is just going to pick up,
03:28like to throw it up.
03:32It was a very nice moment, and the way they celebrated it with me,
03:41and the joy of everyone, it was really nice.
03:44Ronaldinho looked after him, and Ronaldinho wanted to give him the ball.
03:51And then, of course, Ronaldinho asked him to jump on top of him.
03:54And you could see this kid, this young Argentinian,
03:58jumping on the back of what he was at the time, the 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, and still has,
04:11for Messi and vice versa as well.
04:13That relationship grew, and that allowed, for good and bad reasons,
04:19allowed Messi to learn a lot.
04:21It was a very beautiful day, for what it meant to be a goal in the World Cup.
04:31It 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.
04:48The first game I didn't have entered.
04:50I had to go for a moment to go for a goal, and it was really nice.
04:54We played Serbia, one of the toughest defences in Europe at the time.
04:57I think he got to the World Cup with, I think, zero goal conceded.
05:01So that was a great game.
05:04There were some great goals, some great football.
05:06There was a goal that we all remember that we touched the ball 27 times.
05:10I think Gambiazzo scored.
05:12Messi started on the bench, I think, and then he came on later.
05:15And then he added to that festival.
05:17We smashed two pieces, one of the toughest defences in World Football.
05:21But then we thought, you know, we did okay, maybe it is fine.
05:27Messi coming in, bringing something extra, but not at the time.
05:32He was a good player, a very good player, but not what he was about to come.
05:51To make those three goals, the Classic, it was incredible.
05:56Well, it was beautiful to make three goals against Madrid,
06:01for what it means, because it's a game where you can see and follow everyone.
06:11Messi really changes the energy of the team, of everyone.
06:16When Leo Messi sees in his eyes, I know him, I know him since he was 16 years old,
06:23I see him in his eyes when he decides to win the game.
06:29And I see him in his eyes when Messi is able to create in the field
06:35an absolute psychosis in the rival.
06:38He, like Ronaldo did the gordon, the phenomenon,
06:41provoca fear.
06:43And that fear inmovilizes the rival.
06:48It'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.
06:57It seems like if they were congelados by the effect of Leo Messi.
07:00Leo Messi provoca that effect, and it provoca especially in the players of Madrid.
07:05I don't think of anything, I don't think of the game when I'm in the field.
07:23So far, he's going to play and he's going to play like this, he's going to open the space and he's going to find the way to follow.
07:32And he ended up winning the goal.
07:35But, when I was just getting the ball, I didn't imagine.
07:38What I always remember is a game in training, the boys from Barça B, we always mix the team.
07:46I was with a player from Barça B, and the Messi encarou him.
07:50And I was behind, against the goal.
07:52I 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.
08:00He just did it inside.
08:02The two on the floor, just did it.
08:04So, if you enter, he'll be dribbling.
08:06If you wait, he'll be dribbling too.
08:08So, it's almost impossible to mark him.
08:11The Messi, we've been fighting since the base category.
08:16When the Messi came to the futebol in 2005, the World Cup in Germany,
08:20we made the semi-final Brazil and Argentina.
08:22And he was the best player in the game.
08:26He was the best player in the competition.
08:28So, everyone saw that there was a phenomenon.
08:31Everyone was firm on him, he did a lot of pressure on him, and he didn't answer anything.
08:35He didn't complain.
08:36I've never seen him complain about a stronger point.
08:39This is the difference.
08:40Everyone knows that the more you beat, he'll come to the top.
08:43So, it's cool. I admire him.
08:45You're a part of the world.
08:47You don't have to know that the more you beat.
08:49You were an businessman or you got to know this number of people
08:51about him.
08:52This year was a big decision.
08:53I think for a long time, I am not a good practitioner.
08:55This year and my professional trainer,
08:57this year was a big fan of the league,
08:58was a part of the year.
08:59Who had to know this for me?
09:00You were a part of the first time.
09:01That championship, that trip was one of the most specials in my career, one of the most
09:08remembered, one of the most beautiful things about the Olympic Games, not only for being
09:14champions, we had the chance to achieve it, but also for the life that I had to live in
09:20the little while we were in the Olympic Games. I have a very beautiful memory of that championship.
09:27The Olympics were an outstanding day. We tried many times, we lost finals, and it was special.
09:35Bielsa convinced everybody that it was worth it. Leo, I think he had these issues with Barcelona
09:43about being released. He managed to get there. It was very important. It was an outstanding day.
09:49We won World Cups, but the Olympic Games is something that we really, really wanted.
09:53In fact, our neighbors, the Brazilians, they had to wait a bit longer than us, and they
09:57also waited for a long time. So the Olympic football, it's not a World Cup, but it's
10:01very, very important. It was something that Leo Messi was fundamental to achieve.
10:07But for anybody to doubt what he's been doing for Argentina, it's outrageous, and I think
10:17they probably will realize when he's gone. In a way, Argentina is living a golden era, because
10:23they've been in a World Cup final, they've been in two American Cup finals, and when you win or lose,
10:31it's just down to little details. It could have gone one way or the other. Some of them, of course,
10:36were goals in extra time or were wins at penalty shootouts. So to say that Leo Messi is not
10:45doing well with Argentina is basically not realizing that they are living a special moment.
10:50What kind of games have you been doing for?
10:51Well, it can happen, right? They're partidos, they're different ways.
11:02I also played Madrid for four goals. It's a situation that they're given. Partidos that
11:08are partidos that, for one thing or another, they decide that way. And that time we
11:13don't have to win. It's special for everyone, for how it won in Bernabéu, because it had been
11:20a new position for me in that game, because we had invented something new with me, and we
11:33would probably be talking about all of that.
11:36Well, for sure it's not the easiest player to stop. You know, he has so many qualities.
11:42And 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 that when we ended the match, we came back together in
11:56the flight, and I said, have you seen the best match of Leo Messi? And he said, no.
12:03The best match will be the next match. But that day, you saw the faces of the people in Bernabéu
12:10and all of them said, for God, why Messi is the Barça?
12:15Yes, obviously, in that moment, I thought, I imagined that goal, and well, I entinted, and
12:30thanks to God, it came out and it was a very important goal for me, in the individual, for the team, for how the
12:42goal was to win the final. It was one of my goals most beautiful for me.
12:48The truth is that at that moment, it seemed difficult to win with Ferdinand in front, but it
12:56was right where I was, where I didn't have a mark, and it was right in the center for
13:03the goal.
13:04What was the goal of the goal of Ferdinand?
13:11We always tried to defend ourselves well. We had a good team, who defended ourselves well.
13:17There was Ferdinand, there was Vida, there was Patrice, there were players who were
13:22experienced in football, and we knew that we would be playing with a great quality team.
13:26At the same time, we had to defend ourselves, but we had players to attack, like Cristiano Ronaldo,
13:30like Tevis, like Rune, like Disson Parque, like Giggs.
13:33So, for us, we were at the same level of Barcelona this year, because we had already won the
13:38English Championship, and we were also disputing the second Champions League team.
13:42So, we were so confused.
13:43That was the moment of the game, where we were at the top of the Barcelona, where Tevis
13:55had lost a ball, where he had crossed, he had shot, he had caught, he had caught.
14:00We were at the top of the Barcelona.
14:01At the moment, when we were careful, we ended up making the goal.
14:04Daniel's crossing.
14:05Daniel.
14:06The 2009 Champions League final started, really, in the Clásico previously, because
14:13just before the Clásico, Pep Guardiola asked very late in the day, Leo Messi, to come to
14:21the training ground, Messi doesn't live far away from it, and showed him some clips, some
14:27videos, and said, you know that space here, in between the holding midfielders and the
14:31centre-backs, I want you to play there.
14:33That 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
14:42stood that game properly, because what happened in the Champions League final was that Messi
14:48started on the right-hand side, Eto'o was in the centre of the attack, and after ten minutes,
14:55Cristiano Ronaldo had a chance for Manchester United that could have put them ahead, still
15:00nil-nil, and Pep Guardiola asked Eto'o and Messi to change places.
15:05So, Eto'o went onto the right-hand side, Messi came inside, and then he became not just a
15:10false nine, but linked as well with the midfield.
15:13They created superiority in the midfield.
15:15Manchester United did not know how to deal with that, and basically that was the beginning
15:21of the victory of Barcelona.
15:23Manchester United is not the best.
15:25European Liverpool
15:26Will you be able to play the game for Manchester United?
15:36It's something really nice to be the goalkeeper in a great league, so important, with so many players
15:46of a lot of level level, and to be the best goalkeeper, it's a very good statistic.
15:58I remember when he beat the record, I talked to Leo, you remember, Sarra was a mythic record,
16:05he had an absolute record, and he said, I don't play for the records, I play to pass it well.
16:11This is a player that my generation has not seen before, I don't think we've ever seen before,
16:18and it's down to the consistency of his efforts, his performances, in big games as well,
16:24the fact that he's carried a team like Barcelona to win everything, and Barcelona have won with
16:30the Guardiola, with Tito Villanova, with Tata Martino, with Luis Enrique, and in the middle of all that,
16:37there 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,
16:46but again, he coincides that has Messi in it.
16:50It was a long day, because everything was done, to be the 500 goal, the 3-2 goal in the last minute,
17:06a game where we, if we didn't win, we almost left the league.
17:14It was a goal that gave us hope to continue to dream about the league.
17:19It was a game that we deserved to win by the way it was done, and, well,
17:23winning in the last minute was very special for all the barcelonists.
17:30For me, because he is the best player in the world,
17:32it's, for me, he managed to stay for 10 years at the same level,
17:38and his level is different from the rest.
17:41To be able to do that for 10 years, it's something very little or almost nothing.
17:48I think that the goal is not all in a game or in a player.
18:18I want to be a great player, a player outside the world.
18:24I want to be a great player, a player outside the world.
18:39One of the greatest in the last years, and he's so influential for Barcelona.
18:48It's impossible to do simple.
18:54In the training, he does things that no one does,
18:59but in a way that he almost didn't force himself to do.
19:03So I think that's the difference.
19:05It's a great player.
19:06It's great.
19:07It's a great player.
19:08It's very great.
19:09The most important thing to talk about him will be a lot, because he's a guy who
19:15dispensates comments, what he does inside the field is inexplicable, he's a great player.
19:20Leo Messi is a source of happiness, happiness to the highest degree.
19:30Here they say that Leo Messi is better than to do love with your partner, because it's
19:35more prolonged than to do Leo Messi, and that's what people feel here in Barcelona.
19:46This question about Messi being the greatest player ever, it's one that perhaps in 10 years
19:50time will look back and say, why didn't we even ask?
20:05I'll see you next time.
20:16I'll see you next time.
20:20I'll see you next time.
20:27I'll see you next time.
20:37I'll see you next time.