Messi Becomes UEFA's All-Time Goal Leader

[00:00:00] On November 25, 2014, Barcelona's Lionel Messi scores a hat-trick and in doing so becomes the all-time leader in the UEFA, also known as the Union of European Football Association, the top division of European clubs, solidifying himself as arguably the best player in the world and maybe the best of all time.

[00:00:30] Today we're going to dive into how Messi got to this point and what made him so good and how he compares to the best of all time.

[00:00:38] Today on Daily Sports History.

[00:00:48] Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide as you daily learn more about sports history, increasing your sports knowledge, as today we learn about Lionel Messi.

[00:01:01] And today's trivia question to listen out for is, how did Barcelona sign Lionel Messi?

[00:01:08] Now Lionel was born in Argentina in 1987.

[00:01:13] He was the third of four children in a family that struggled to make ends meet.

[00:01:17] But they were a tight-knit family and they loved football.

[00:01:20] And Lionel quickly developed a passion at an early age for football.

[00:01:25] And for everyone in America, I'm going to call it football for the rest of this episode.

[00:01:29] Just know I am talking about soccer, just so you don't get confused.

[00:01:33] And at the age of four, he actually joined his first team.

[00:01:37] And the whole family was involved, including his grandmother, who really pushed him in his training and helped him get on the field.

[00:01:44] And sadly, she passed away when he was still pretty young, but he always remembers her.

[00:01:48] And to this day, he still celebrates goals by looking up to the sky and pointing as a tribute to his grandmother.

[00:01:54] But as he got a little bit older, his family began to realize that he was small.

[00:01:59] He was not growing as much as he could.

[00:02:01] And at the age of 10, he still was under five feet tall.

[00:02:04] And that's when he was diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency.

[00:02:08] And his father's health insurance only would cover two years of the therapy to help him continue to grow.

[00:02:14] And it costs over $1,000 for this treatment every month.

[00:02:18] So what they did was he was getting a lot of interest from teams around the world for him to join, even at this young age.

[00:02:25] Because if you don't know, in Europe, they have kind of minor league teams for younger players to join.

[00:02:32] When they're young, they get better.

[00:02:33] And then they join the big team when they get older and their skill has made it to that point.

[00:02:39] So they contacted anyone that had contacted him about possibly joining their team, about seeing if they could help pay this bill.

[00:02:47] Because even though he was small, he was still a great athlete.

[00:02:51] As he scored over 500 goals for his team back in Argentina.

[00:02:55] And one team decided to take a chance.

[00:02:57] And that team was Barcelona.

[00:02:59] They decided they would pay for his treatment as long as he made the commitment to join their team after this.

[00:03:05] Now, it was unusual to have a player this young.

[00:03:08] But because of the commitment and the unusualness of them helping pay for this treatment, that's how they did this.

[00:03:17] Now, this couldn't be done in leagues in America because there's age limit rules and things like that.

[00:03:22] But European rules and other professional football rules are different.

[00:03:27] And that is, one, because football is so much bigger around the world.

[00:03:32] Every team is looking for an advantage.

[00:03:34] And it's also because the leagues and the teams are governed very differently because it's more free-flowing.

[00:03:43] Teams play for different kind of cups.

[00:03:45] And you have the European teams.

[00:03:47] You have the South America League.

[00:03:49] You have the Mexican League.

[00:03:50] There's so many different professional leagues around the world that it kind of is this hodgepodge that you can do a little bit more unusual things.

[00:03:59] Like, sign a young player because you're paying for his medical treatment.

[00:04:04] It's also unusual because usually if you need medical treatment, you aren't going to be good enough to play for one of these teams.

[00:04:10] But he was.

[00:04:11] And in December of 2000, he officially joined the team.

[00:04:16] And in February of 2001, the whole family relocated to Barcelona where he joined their youth team.

[00:04:22] And by the age of 14, he finally completed his hormone treatment where he grew all the way to height of 5'7".

[00:04:30] Now, luckily, the sport he loved was soccer.

[00:04:33] And height is not the most important thing.

[00:04:36] You need speed and dexterity more than anything else.

[00:04:39] If you are quick and you have great foot-eye coordination, it doesn't matter how big you are.

[00:04:46] Now, in other sports like football and basketball, size matters.

[00:04:49] But not in soccer.

[00:04:51] And that bode well for him.

[00:04:53] And he did so good in this minor league system that the team actually lobbied for him to be part of the first team.

[00:05:01] And he made his La Liga debut, which is the top professional division in the Spain Football League, on October 16, 2004, against Espano.

[00:05:12] Although he wouldn't score until the following year on May 1, 2005, scoring his first goal with an assist from his idol growing up, Ronaldinho.

[00:05:22] Becoming, at the time, the youngest ever to score a goal at the age of 17 in three months.

[00:05:29] Let that sink in.

[00:05:30] He was only 17.

[00:05:32] And he had already made it to the top level of soccer.

[00:05:38] Scoring.

[00:05:38] Now, we did a previous episode on Freddy Adu and the challenges he had.

[00:05:42] But Barcelona did things differently.

[00:05:45] They worked his way up.

[00:05:46] He earned his spot, as opposed to Freddy, who was given more than he may have earned.

[00:05:52] Messi just start and blowed the doors off everything.

[00:05:55] He was young.

[00:05:56] He was young.

[00:05:57] And his first year, he only played nine games and scored one goal.

[00:06:00] Then the next year, he got even better.

[00:06:03] Played 25 games.

[00:06:04] Had eight goals and three assists.

[00:06:06] And he continued to grow.

[00:06:08] And just so you know, for a forward, which Messi is, in general, a good top forward scores between 20 and 30 goals a year.

[00:06:18] One of the top echelon scores between 30 and 40.

[00:06:22] But the really great goal scorers score over 40.

[00:06:26] These are the guys that you would consider in the conversation of greatest of all time.

[00:06:30] And he was working his way up there.

[00:06:32] Because in his third season, he played 36 games and had 17 goals with four assists.

[00:06:38] Including a hat trick versus Real Madrid.

[00:06:41] His next season, in 2007-2008, he played 40 games with 16 goals and 13 assists.

[00:06:47] He wasn't just a scorer.

[00:06:48] He was a playmaker, setting up his team as well as himself.

[00:06:52] And in 2008-2009, he played 51 games with 38 goals and 18 assists.

[00:06:59] This was largely considered his breakout season.

[00:07:01] And he would score, in 2009-2010, he would score 45 goals with 11 assists.

[00:07:06] And he would continue to increase and have his best season in 2011 and 2012.

[00:07:11] Where he had 73 goals to go along with 29 assists.

[00:07:17] And for the entire year, including his time with his country, he would score over 91 goals.

[00:07:23] Which was a record for goals across all competitions within a calendar year.

[00:07:27] And this is the same year he would break the record for the most UEFA goals scored of all time.

[00:07:34] Scoring his 100th goal.

[00:07:36] And he would continue his great play until 2021.

[00:07:40] Where after this season, the team could no longer afford to keep him.

[00:07:44] And they let him go for free.

[00:07:46] He finished his career with Barcelona with over 672 goals and 268 assists.

[00:07:54] Now he would continue his career with Paris Saint-Germain.

[00:07:58] Where he had another couple good seasons.

[00:07:59] Before signing with MLS team Inter-Miami.

[00:08:04] And he's still playing to this day as of 2024.

[00:08:06] But just to give you an idea of where he ranks.

[00:08:09] He's often been compared to Cristiano Ronaldo.

[00:08:13] Who they often went back and forth who had the most goals.

[00:08:17] And Messi was more of a playmaker.

[00:08:19] And was way better of a playmaker than Cristiano.

[00:08:22] But Cristiano was more of a goal scorer.

[00:08:25] And they had a rivalry going back and forth to who was the best.

[00:08:27] Still kind of the best conversation to this day.

[00:08:30] At least the best right now.

[00:08:32] And it's a toss up of who is better.

[00:08:34] Messi has better goals per game.

[00:08:36] Cristiano has more goals overall.

[00:08:39] But there's also other great players.

[00:08:41] Like Pele has a better goals per game.

[00:08:44] But may have played lesser competition.

[00:08:46] And you have others like Jose Pican.

[00:08:49] Who had a 1.25 goals per game.

[00:08:52] Although he's playing lesser competition.

[00:08:55] His goal rate was incredible.

[00:08:57] Often we forget about who's the best.

[00:08:59] We focus on who's right now.

[00:09:00] And Cristiano and Messi are still in that conversation.

[00:09:03] Even though both of them are coming to the end of their careers.

[00:09:06] Really making cash money right now.

[00:09:09] With Miami.

[00:09:10] Messi's making a ton.

[00:09:11] And we're actually going to cover Cristiano in another episode.

[00:09:15] Talking about how much he is making.

[00:09:17] Which is a crazy amount.

[00:09:18] Where he's playing in Saudi Arabia.

[00:09:21] But what really made Messi stand out.

[00:09:23] Was his longevity.

[00:09:24] He really didn't get injured.

[00:09:26] He played for almost two decades.

[00:09:27] Where he was just the best playmaker on the field.

[00:09:31] Scoring.

[00:09:32] Assist making.

[00:09:33] He was fantastic.

[00:09:34] Through all his time with Barcelona.

[00:09:37] And he didn't get injured a lot.

[00:09:39] He was always at the top of his game.

[00:09:41] And someone you could always rely on.

[00:09:42] And he was in an era like no other.

[00:09:45] Playing the highest of highest competition.

[00:09:47] Football across the world had gotten better.

[00:09:49] And he had gotten better.

[00:09:51] Taking it to new heights.

[00:09:53] Because before Messi.

[00:09:54] People in America really did not know players overseas in England.

[00:09:59] But Messi took it to a new level.

[00:10:01] Where people wanted to pay attention.

[00:10:03] Even in America.

[00:10:05] To what was going on in Europe football.

[00:10:07] And that was an incredible feat.

[00:10:09] That we can't forget.

[00:10:10] And he's still playing to this day.

[00:10:13] And can contribute even more to his legacy.

[00:10:15] With Inter Miami.

[00:10:17] Even though it might be considered less competition.

[00:10:19] It's a great way for him to continue to grow the sport.

[00:10:22] Which he has done so well in the past.

[00:10:24] And he even grew the sport in his home country of Argentina.

[00:10:27] Where he's gotten them so high.

[00:10:29] That they have won multiple championships.

[00:10:32] And currently are ranked number one in the world.

[00:10:34] And his greatness continues to show.

[00:10:38] And if you want more football or soccer.

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[00:11:19] And did you catch the answer to today's trivia question?

[00:11:22] How did Barcelona sign Lionel Messi?

[00:11:24] And the answer is.

[00:11:26] They agreed to pay his medical bills.

[00:11:28] Due to his growth hormonal.

[00:11:30] Growth hormonal.

[00:11:31] Due to his growth hormonal deficiency.

[00:11:33] And that allowed him to be part of that team.