Since his professional debut for Barcelona in 2004, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner has teamed up with some of the greatest footballers of all time. ..Continue Reading
During his 17-year tenure at Camp Nou, Messi played alongside numerous world-class talents such as Xavi, Carles Puyol, and Andres Iniesta, securing four Champions League titles together.
Interestingly, all 10 players Messi mentioned as his favorite teammates were from Barcelona, including two of his current Inter Miami teammates, as revealed in an interview with Chinese outlet Titan Sports.
“I was lucky to play for a long time at Barcelona… with many of the best players,” Messi said in 2023.
“Like Ronaldinho, Deco, [Samuel] Eto’o, [Luis] Suarez, Xavi, [Andres] Iniesta, [Sergio] Busquets, I was lucky enough to play with the best players and enjoy the game with them.”
After a brief pause, Messi brought up one of his most talented teammates at club level. He said: “Speaking of which, I almost forgot about Neymar because there are so many people.”
Moments later and the World Cup winner brought up four other ex-Barcelona teammates.
“There must be many players I forgot to mention,” Messi added. “I’ve been lucky enough to play with the best players, with the best strikers, like Neymar, [Samuel] Eto’o, [Luis] Suarez, [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic and [David] Villa and many more.
“I’ve been comfortable playing with all of them, or almost all of them, because I’ve been lucky enough to play with the best of them… playing with them is easy.”
In 2023, Lionel Messi selected Kylian Mbappe for his ‘dream XI’ of former teammates, which also included Ronaldinho, Dani Alves, and Luis Suarez.
The Argentine chose Marc-Andre ter Stegen as his goalkeeper, ahead of Victor Valdes and Gianluigi Donnarumma. For the defense, he selected Dani Alves, Jordi Alba, Carles Puyol, and Javier Mascherano.
In midfield, Messi picked Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta, along with the ever-charismatic Ronaldinho, who famously assisted Messi in scoring his first goal for the club on May 1, 2005, against Albacete.
Neymar and Luis Suarez, two players who thrived alongside Messi, were unsurprising selections, along with Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe, the only non-Barcelona player to be included.
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