Messi: the unknown story of how he saved FC Barcelona from relegation

After more than 20 years at the club, Lionel Messi has become one of the greatest soccer players in FC Barcelona history. Many confirm that he is in fact the best one ever to play for the Catalan side, and assure that no one in the world can reach the level that he once had, not even Pelé, Diego Maradona or Cristiano Ronaldo.

But the times of Messi at Barça were not always golden. When he was very young, the Argentinian was responsible for saving the club from relegation. The wonder kid was very young and Barcelona C was about to lose the category. Head coach Pepe Boada decided to call Lionel Messi, who was very young to play with the U19, but skilled and talented as well.

Just a couple of weeks before the end of the local competition, Barcelona occupied the last positions of the table and Messi played a key role in a victory 3-2 against U.D.A Gramanet B, scoring all three goals of his side. In total, Messi played 10 games for Barcelona C, winning five, tying four and losing just once.

On those times, the role of the historical no. 10 was fundamental to save the third team from Barcelona from relegation. Since then, he had the chance to start to play more minutes with the youth teams and finally on the season 2004/05 he had the great chance to make his debut with the first team and impressed the whole world.

A goodbye after 20 years

Despite Messi was always loyal to Barcelona during his professional career, that may be changing soon. The no. 10 is about to leave the Catalan side after 20 years, as he considers that he has not been well treated during the last years. Even though we will have to wait until the half of the year to know what will happen, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City and the MLS have several chances to sign him.