Barcelona is back on track to retain their La Liga crown after they handed out a 5-0 thrashing to city rival Espanyol in the Derbi Barceloni on Sunday. The victory was especially sweet for Barcelona, as during the last meeting between the two clubs, Espanyol keeper Pau Lopez stomped on Messi after the Barca star went down in front of the goal.
Let’s just get this out of the way: it is unlikely that Lionel Messi will end his career in China. He has gone on record multiple times saying that he wants to end his career at Barcelona, with the only other possibility being a return to his native Argentina. But should the landscape of Lionel Messi’s life change enough, and not in unheard-of ways, it is possible for him to move to China at the end of his career.
Do you like jazz? Do you like Lionel Messi? Do you like one and not the other? Well, either way you're in luck. A redditor created a video that compiled all of Messi's passes with the sweet sounds of piano, bass, trombone and trumpet playing in the background. One thing you'll notice in this video is actually the amount of opportunities missed by Messi's teammates after he feeds them pin point passes. Alas, the Argentine still has 15 assists in La Liga, which is good enough to be tied for first in the league with his teammate, Luis Suarez.
Earlier this year many of us heard the heartwarming story of Murtaza Ahmadi – a 5 year old boy from Afghanistan who admires Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi. When pictures of little Murtaza in his homemade Messi “jersey,” made from a blue and white striped plastic bag, went viral Messi and his team took notice. Messi autographed an actual jersey for his young fan and had it delivered to the boy in eastern Afghanistan. A touching gesture that shows the global reach of the beautiful game.
“Our country is in serious trouble. We’re having people coming in through the border that are not people that we want,” says Donald Trump in an audio clip from the Republican presidential candidate that’s being used to promote this summer’s Copa America Centenario.
The images and text that go with the audio make the speech, for the first time, seem reasonable. Marcos Rojo, Pablo Zabaleta, Lionel Messi and Javier Mascherano are seen disembarking from a plane, presumably landing on American soil for this summer’s tournament. The United States is indeed in serious trouble.
The image of football players at wild parties with crazy girls is reinforced every generation. What few of us might know, however, is that this image does not fit every star player. Off the field, the nicest footballers in the world maintain lasting romances with girlfriends and wives. They form couples, even in adolescence, when they were still in youth teams. The most popular player today, Lionel Messi met his wife Antonella Roccuzzo when he was just a promising young boy from the lowland areas of Argentina.
Barcelona came into their game against Real Betis knowing that they needed to win to stay in first place in La Liga over Atletico Madrid via head-to-head point differential, but they came out of the gates like a team with little to play for.
Seven yellow cards were given out between Barcelona and Betis in the first half, more than the number of shots taken by both teams in that time, six.
It's pretty clear that Lionel Messi is naturally talented. Even when he was 17, you could see that he was just inherently special. That being said, Lionel Messi didn't make it to where he is by pure talent alone. It takes a lot of hard work and discipline to play at the top level and produce the kind of numbers that Messi does. Needless to say, the Lionel Messi diet is probably a pretty good one.
Here are some real things that have been said about Lionel Messi:
"It is clear that Messi is on a level above all others. Those who do not see that are blind." - Xavi
"They tell me that all men are equal in God’s eyes, this player makes you seriously think about those words." - Football commentator Ray Hudson
Lionel Messi may have gotten knocked out of the Champions League this year, but he earned a different kind of title that is sure to make him happy. Lionel Messi is the highest paid footballer in soccer – which makes him one of the highest paid athletes in the world.
Lionel Messi reportedly earned $83.4 million (€74 million, or £59.3 million) in 2015, which placed him higher than Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar, the #2 and #3 highest earning footballers, respectively. Neymar earned $49 million in 2015, while Ronaldo earned $76 million.