It’s hard to remember Lionel Messi sporting anything other than the famous No. 10 for Barcelona, but before he assumed the mark of the talisman, he made his debut in the No. 30 and then spent a few seasons sporting the No. 19.
It wasn’t until Ronaldinho left the club before the 2008-09 campaign — at which time Messi had already scored 42 goals for the senior side (including 31 in LaLiga and eight in the Champions League) — that Messi assumed his iconic number.
Messi himself has spoken of the transition with Ronaldinho, who always looked after the teenager and foresaw his greatness before anyone else: “Before leaving the club (Ronaldinho) was coming off a few months where he was thinking about things,” Messi told BarcaTV. “He had it in his mind that he was leaving and he told me to have his number. I took it without looking at what he had done with the shirt. If I did, I would not have taken it.”
Messi has gone on to eclipse the great Brazilian at the Camp Nou, but in celebration of 2019, Barcelona’s YouTube channel has released a video counting down the top 19 goals Messi scored while donning the No. 19.
The kid was alright.
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