FIFA 18: Lionel Messi's evolution from 2005 to 2018

Lionel Messi in FIFA 17

Messi is arguably one of the greatest if not the greatest of all time. His skill and ability are second to none as is well documented by his stupendous record in world football. While comparisons with Ronaldo are bound to be made, Leo Messi has carved out a great path for himself by regularly proving why his claim to be football's best must be taken seriously. An astounding 538 goals in all competitions has made the Argentine maestro Barcelona’s top goal scorer by a landslide, and he doesn’t seem to be letting up anytime soon.

Messi’s FIFA journey is nothing short of impressive either. Debuting in FIFA 06, the little magician has steadily climbed the rating ladder and secured a position at the very top of the list. With age on his side, expect this stalwart to break more records and set new milestones for years to come. Keeping this in mind, we decided to explore the path of Messi by tracing his evolution in football’s elite video game.

FIFA 06

Messi in FIFA 06

Apart from the hideous photo, the statistics don’t make for great reading either in FIFA 06 for Lionel Messi. It’s hard to imagine that this all time great was once actually just rated 78! While it was clear that he had the skill, as can be seen by 88 in dribbling, most other attributes that we relate with Messi are fairly low since he had not announced himself on the world stage to a very large extent. Still in the shadow of Ronaldinho and others, Messi’s moment was slowly arriving.