"I think we all enjoyed everything about it" - Lionel Messi names his favorite record during his stint at Barcelona
Barcelona legend Lionel Messi has stated that the 2008-09 sextuple winning season is his favorite record from the many he set during his days playing for La Blaugrana. The 37-year-old Argentine legend spent the majority of his career in Catalonia before leaving the club in 2021.
Messi left Argentina for Barcelona as a 13-year-old in 2000, becoming a fixture for the youth sides from 2001. He made his professional debut in the club's colors aged just 16 in a friendly match against FC Porto in November 2003, and his competitive debut in October 2004.
By the time he left the Nou Camp in 2021, Lionel Messi had firmly established himself as the greatest player in the history of the club. In an interview with 3CAT, Messi was asked about his favorite record at the club.
"It’s the sextuple with Barcelona. That year, the team enjoyed everything—training, matches—every single day. We would go out to play, already confident about the result. The only question was how it would end, not whether we would win. Honestly, it was a year I truly enjoyed, and I think we all enjoyed everything about it," Messi said.
The year Barcelona won the sextuple was the year Lionel Messi finally announced himself to the world as a global star. At the start of the 2008-09 season, he took the club's number ten jersey for the first time following the appointment of Pep Guardiola as manager. Messi scored 38 goals across all competitions as his side won the treble by the end of the season, becoming the first Spanish club to do so.
Messi and his Barça teammates remained hungry for success and went on to win the Supercopa de Espana, UEFA Super Cup, and FIFA Club World Cup in the first half of the 2009-10 season - completing the sextuple.
Lionel Messi reiterates love for Barcelona in documentary
Lionel Messi has pointed out that he has no hard feelings for former club Barcelona despite the messy nature of his exit from the club in 2021. The 37-year-old was in tears as he left the club as a free agent in 2021 to join PSG due to issues around his wages.
Speaking on the El Nou Clam documentary, Messi pointed out that he remains grateful to the club for the role they played in developing him. He also said that he is proud of how the first team of the club has developed and performed.
“I was lucky God took me to this place and made me spend most of my life in this wonderful club. It’s a special club, different from all the others, and it’s difficult to be a different club at the moment because of how things are handled in football today," Messi said (via Football Espana).
“The way the first team is represented, in the way we want it to be, is a great source of pride.”
Messi played 778 games in a Barcelona shirt, scoring 672 goals and providing 303 assists for the club over the years. He won every trophy he completed in with the club, including a treble in the 2008-09 and 2014-15 seasons.