MARCA America Award Leo Messi: The number 1 among the number 1s

Achange in FC Barcelona, the number 20 jersey is retired, Deco leaves the field and the number 30 jersey, Messi, steps onto the pitch.” No one could have imagined that those words, spoken by the stadium announcer of RCD Espanyol on October 16, 2004, would change the history of world football. Leo Messi (Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini to be exact) made his official debut with the Barcelona jersey on matchday 7 of LaLiga 2004-05.

It was the 82nd minute of a derby that his club ended up winning 0-1, precisely with a goal from Deco. Messi (Rosario, June 24, 1987) didn’t score that day, which almost surprises, seen now with the perspective of two decades of successes, goals, victories, titles, and accolades. It is true that Messi had debuted with Barça almost a year earlier, on November 16, 2003, in a friendly match in Porto (Portugal). It was the prelude to a career that has led him to be number 1 among the number 1s, the player with the most titles in the history of football (46), surpassing his former teammate Dani Alves by two, Andrés Iniesta and Maxwell by seven, Piqué by eight, and Cristiano Ronaldo by nine, with whom he has had a historic rivalry with the shirts of Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively.