5 players who were stunned by Lionel Messi in training
Lionel Messi is arguably the greatest footballer to have graced a football field. The Argentina captain came through the FC Barcelona youth ranks and made his debut as a teenager before going on to make the most appearances in the club's history.
Lionel Messi is still going strong at 34 years of age
Lionel Messi was recently awarded his seventh Ballon d'Or award, a testament to the spectacular career he has had so far. The PSG forward has always been a top performer and competitor throughout his career, even on the training pitch.
Messi has trained alongside some of the worldโs best footballers. Here is a list of five players who have played alongside Lionel Messi, who have been stunned by his training displays.
#5 Thierry Henry
After building a legacy as one of the greatest players to grace the English Premier League with Arsenal, Thierry Henry moved to FC Barcelona in 2007, where he played alongside Lionel Messi.
Lionel Messi, who played with Henry, was still a developing youngster who was set to announce his legend to the football world.
On this day in 2014, Thierry Henry announced his retirement.
He made football look easy ๐ช
(via @UEFAcom_de)
https://t.co/fUU8DDurqU
As Henry revealed in an interview, Lionel Messi would get mad when he was denied a free kick in training and ripped through the entire team singlehandedly from time to time.
"So when the ball went back to his goalkeeper, he (Messi) ran back and demanded the ball," The goalkeeper rolled him the ball, and Messi then proceeded to run through the entire team and score. I did stuff like that too against little kids. But he (Messi) did it against some of the best in the world: Yaya Toure, Puyol, Iniesta, Xavi, Busquets.
"And it wasn't just that one time. He did it a couple of times. That's when I knew Messi was different to anyone we've ever seen."
#4 Carles Puyol
Former FC Barcelona captain and defender Carles Puyol is another player whose jaw dropped when he saw Lionel Messi in training. Both played together at FC Barcelona until Puyol's retirement from football in 2014, and the ex-defender had the highest respect for his insanely gifted teammate.
๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ ๐๐จ๐ง๐๐๐ฒ ๐๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐ก๐ญ: At 27, Carles Puyol hadn't won any titles with Barcelona ๐ฑ
9 Years Later He'd Won 24... ๐
#AfricaPredict #TipsForYou https://t.co/DCqZkgTO9r
In an interview with La Vanguardia after his retirement, Puyol described how Messi would often embarrass him in training for all those years.
"In a mini one-on-one match, I told myself, 'I'm going to see if I can stop him'. It was humiliating. Pep Guardiola (the then coach) told me, 'Carles, don't injure him. I told Pep, 'If you don't want anything to happen, stop the session'. I tried everything but he always got past me at his own pace," Puyol said.