Argentine striker Lionel Messi announced - yesterday, Thursday - leaving Barcelona after the expiration of his contract at the end of last June, after 21 years spent in the Catalan club.
Messi, 34, joined the junior sector in Barcelona when he was 13 years old, and spent all his professional career in the club until he became its historical top scorer with 672 goals, and the most participating player in the Barcelona shirt in 778 games in all competitions.
His career to this day
The Argentine magician - born on June 24, 1987 in Rosario, Argentina - joined Barcelona in 2000 when he was 13 years old, and he emerged in the junior teams before coach Frank Rijkaard gave him the opportunity to play for the first team - and he was 16 years old - in a friendly match against Porto in 2003.
He made his La Liga debut in October 2004 and scored his first goal in the competition the following May against Albacete at Camp Nou.
He scored 6 goals in 17 games in the 2005-2006 season and crowned Barcelona with the league title for the second year in a row, but Messi did not participate in the 2-1 victory over Arsenal in the Champions League final.
He played a prominent role in Barcelona winning 6 titles in 2009, including the Champions League, the Spanish League, the King's Cup and the Club World Cup.
In 2009 he won the first of 4 consecutive Ballon d'Or awards.
He won the Spanish League in 2010 and retained the Golden Ball, ahead of his teammates Andres Iniesta and Spain's World Cup-winning duo Xabi.
He led Barcelona to a 3-1 victory over Manchester United in the 2011 Champions League final, where he scored one goal and made another.
He helped Barcelona win their third consecutive La Liga title in 2010-2011 and scored in a 4-0 win over Santos to win the Club World Cup.
Barcelona failed to retain the Spanish League title or the Champions League, but Messi surpassed Cesar Rodriguez to become Barcelona's historical top scorer and ended 2012 with a massive score that includes 91 goals in all competitions, a record in a Gregorian year.
He broke the record in a single season in the Spanish League by scoring 50 goals in 2011-2012.
He equaled the record in the Champions League by scoring 71 goals, equaling that of former Real Madrid striker Raul and Schalke when he scored twice against Ajax Amsterdam at the end of 2014. But then he was surpassed by Cristiano Ronaldo, the Juventus striker.
He continued a series of impressive performances in the 2014-2015 season, and Barcelona achieved the second historic hat-trick and Messi won the fifth Golden Ball after becoming the all-time top scorer of the Spanish League.
He won the domestic double in the 2015-2016 and 2017-2018 seasons.
After the departure of Andres Iniesta in May 2018, Messi was chosen as Barcelona's captain the following season and led the team to crown the league title, but he was eliminated from the Champions League semi-finals at the hands of Liverpool.
He won a record sixth Ballon d'Or in September 2019.
He tried to leave Barcelona in August 2020 by submitting an official request to leave after his relationship with then club president Josep Maria Bartomeu, but his successor, Juan Laporta, who lived through the story of Messi's rise, convinced him to stay.
He surpassed Pele's record with Santos by scoring his 644th goal for Barcelona against Valladolid in the league in December 2020.
In his last season with Barca, he won the King's Cup, but Barcelona finished the league in third place, and was eliminated by Paris Saint-Germain from the Champions League final price.
He scored 672 goals with Barcelona, a record in 778 games, and won 35 titles with the club, including 10 titles in the League and 4 in the Champions League.