Former England star David Beckham revealed that Barcelona captain Lionel Messi and the first team star prompted him to retire from football in 2013.
Beckham was referring to the confrontation of Paris Saint-Germain - his last former England international - and Barcelona in the 2013 European Champions League quarter-finals, which resulted in a 3-3 draw between the two home and away matches, but Barca qualified for the semi-finals because he scored two goals away from home .
The England captain went back seven years, saying, "Maybe I decided to retire in this match, after Messi passed me."
On that day Messi was 26 years old, while Beckham was at the end of his football career at the age of 38.
He continued, "The return match (in the Camp Nou) was special, we made a clean goal until the 70th minute, before Messi participated and launched an attack from which the equalizer came."
"Despite my age, I enjoyed the two games and presented a distinguished level of pride, and most importantly, we did not lose in the two encounters."
Beckham, who considered Messi the best player in the world, ahead of the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, played against the "Bulga" in the beginnings of the latter in Barcelona, when the Englishman was in Real Madrid, who left for the American League in 2007.