Lionel Messi

The passing of the guard is a rare thing to appreciate as it happens. Sure, people love to say, “we are watching a passing of the guard,” but even if they are correct, it still takes months, sometimes years to complete. What we see from a 19-year-old Messi in this next video is a performance that happened in the middle of such a passing: the transition of Barcelona from Ronaldinho’s team to Messi’s team. In it we watch Messi score a hat-trick against Real Madrid at the age of 19, a performance that showed the world that the hype was real.

The grandest football stadium in all of Europe is about to get a little bigger. Barcelona have released their ambitious plans to remodel and increase the capacity of their Camp Nou stadium by the start of the 2021/22 season.

The renovations will see the overall capacity of the footballing cathedral increase from 99,354 to 105,000. The atmosphere and noise generated by 105,000 supporters will also be cranked up a notch with the addition of a roof which will cover the seats around the entirety of the stadium, ensuring that the noise within cannot get out.

The legend of Messi grows and grows. His latest straight-out-of-a-hollywood-script moment comes from the FIFA Club World Cup final that took place on December 20, 2015. It may have happened three months ago, but River Plate keeper Marcelo Barovero has apparently only just shared the story yesterday to Sport ENGLISH. Barovero’s son received a gift from Messi after the final.

After a weekend in which both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi absolutely killed it, we start our week off with news that they actually killed someone. Well, not they themselves, but the idea of them; the debate of Messi vs Ronaldo killed someone.

Every sports fan has a bucket list of the experiences they would like to have before they die.The sports world is filled with so many great venues and events that, even if you tried to accomplish just one item on your list a year, you still wouldn’t have enough time to get them all done. As a soccer fan, here are five items on my soccer bucket list I would like to do – and think all soccer fans should do before they die.

Barcelona is once again dominating the European football landscape to replicate the success experienced under former boss Pep Guardiola. The Spanish giants are enjoying a long unbeaten run across La Liga, the UEFA Champions League and the Copa del Rey, but there is a different method to their madness.

Ronaldo has scored a lot of amazing goals, but apparently there is one that keeps him up at night…or haunts his dreams…I don’t know, but the point is there’s a goal that Ronaldo dreams about. Which, considering all of the amazing goals he’s scored, is pretty dreamy for the rest of us humans to contemplate. 

“I’ve scored a lot of beautiful goals," he said at the release of his new aftershave (duh).

Lionel Messi can score incredible goals in so many ways it's almost unfair. You forget how many tools he has until he brings them out.

For example, we don't typically think of Messi as a free kick specialist, and then he goes and scores an absurd bender like the one he had against Sevilla Sunday.

Lionel Messi, Steph Curry and Tom Brady were the main catalysts behind their teams' respective 2015 triumphs. Messi led Barcelona to a historic treble, Curry helped Golden State capture the NBA championship and Brady quarterbacked the New England Patriots to victory in Super Bowl XLIX.