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While most other derbies are nothing more than football matches, El Clasico represents much more, with Barcelona and Real Madrid bearing historical differences and contrasting political ideologies.
The central Castille government has always been hostile to the progressive but minority Catalonian populace and this led to a revolt that continues to this day, with the Catalans adopting the Nou Camp as their spiritual home and identifying Barcelona as their answer to General Franco's Real Madrid.
Throughout history, several all-time greats have laid lasting legacies on El Clasico but when it comes to impact, few can match the achievements of Lionel Messi. Here, we shall be reliving five moments that helped install the Argentine's legacy as the most impactful player in El Clasico history.
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#5 Scoring his first Barcelona hat-trick against Real Madrid - (March 10, 2007)
Messi was identified as a generational talent right from his days in La Masia and he showed signs of promise at the 2005 FIFA Under-20 World Cup, where he scored a brace in the final against Nigeria to give Argentina their fifth title and was named the Golden Ball winner in the process.
The diminutive forward was initially the youngest player to make his first-team debut for Barcelona and was already firmly established in the starting lineup by the time the 2006-07 season came around.
With Real Madrid and Barcelona engaged in an enthralling race for league glory, Frank Rijkaard started the Argentine prodigy in the second Clasico of the campaign and despite starring alongside stellar names like Raul, Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos, Samuel Eto'o and Ruud Van Nistelrooy, he was unfazed by the occasion and stole the show.
Los Blancos went ahead through top scorer Van Nistelrooy early in the game but Messi responded in kind in the 11th minute, to become the youngest player to ever score in El Clasico.
Both men made it two on the night with just 30 minutes gone but when Sergio Ramos put Real Madrid 3-2 up with just 17 minutes to go, it seemed all over for ten-man Barcelona in front of their fans. However, the big occasion is when legends step up and Messi was on hand to score an injury-time equaliser, skipping past three challenges before slotting past Iker Casillas to make it 3-3.
This was to be the first of numerous career hat-tricks for the Rosario native and although Barcelona ultimately lost the league title to their rivals on the last day of the season, fans inside the Nou Camp on that day knew that they were witnessing greatness and 13 years later, this still holds true.
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#4 A phone call that redefined the false 9 position - May 2, 2009
In 2009, Messi was widely regarded as the best player in the world and Barcelona were on their way to rewriting the history books and reinventing what was previously thought unattainable.
Under the tutelage of Pep Guardiola, the Argentine talisman was having his best season to that point, functioning primarily on the wing, where his superior dribbling and shooting enabled him to cut inside and wreck havoc.
It was with this in mind that the world anticipated El Clasico in early May 2009 but a phone call late on the eve of the fixture significantly altered the Blaugrana's tactics.
Reports that have since been confirmed by Messi himself revealed that Guardiola called his star player and told him that Madrid's deep-lying defenders left a large pocket of space between the defensive line and midfield and that he would want his number 10 to drop deep and exploit this space.
Real Madrid came into the fixture having won 18 of their last 19 league games and with four points separating them from the top, anything other than a victory would have derailed their quest for a third consecutive league title.
Few minutes into the fixture, Guardiola gave the signal and Messi swapped roles with Samuel Eto'o, confusing the Real defenders and from his position deep in midfield, Messi drew the centre-backs out, leaving plenty of space for his teammates to exploit.
This was a tactically ingenious move by Guardiola and arguably the best Clasico display by Messi, with the Rosario native scoring a brace in what was a comprehensive 6-2 victory.
While other players might have been deployed in the role before, it was Messi's spectacular performance in this match that brought the false nine role into mainstream prominence and laid the template for his evolution into a wandering forward.
#3 The brace that knocked Real Madrid out of the Champions League - 27 April, 2011
Real Madrid and Barcelona were paired in the semifinal of the 2010-11 Champions League and this meant that the eternal rivals would meet each other four times in the space of 20 days, with La Liga and Copa del Rey fixtures completing the quartet.
A Cristiano Ronaldo header decided the Copa final and with the league all but certain to end at Camp Nou, the Champions League fixture took on extra significance.
Both sides lined up at the Santiago Bernabeu just a week after the Copa del Rey final and in what was one of the most heated affairs in this storied rivalry, the two teams threw caution to the wind, with tackles flying recklessly and multiple cards issued.
Messi received the brunt of the Madrid aggression, with a double-team of Lassana Diarra and Xabi Alonso shadowing his every move and a particular run of play where five Madrid players surrounded the Barcelona number 10 as he drove forward is one of the defining images of the Champions League.
That did not, however, deter the Argentine and he ended the night with a brace to send Barcelona through to the final against Manchester United at Wembley.
#2 Surpassing Alfredo di Stefano as highest goalscorer in El Clasico history - 24 March, 2014
Long before Messi, Ronaldo, Xavi, and Sergio Ramos held sway in El Clasico, the likes of Ferenc Puskas, Lazlo Kubala, Luis Suarez, and Alfredo di Stefano made an impact in years gone by.
Di Stefano's transfer to Real Madrid in 1953 was a major cause of consternation to Barcelona fans especially when he played a starring role in the successes enjoyed by Los Blancos in the early years of the European Cup.
The Barracas-born man was a goalscorer of epic proportions and he ended his career as the top scorer in El Clasico with 18 goals and this was a mark that stood for over six decades until it was broken by none other than Messi.
The Barcelona ace achieved this feat when he netted a hat-trick in a 4-3 victory for his side at the Bernabeu to move him to 21 goals and cement his legacy as the highest goalscorer in El Clasico history.
#1 Becoming the scourge of the Bernabeu - 23 April, 2017
With 26 Clasico goals, Messi is the most potent striker in the history of the fixture and quite frankly, fans of Real Madrid are tired of seeing him line up for their eternal rivals.
The 32-year-old seems to have a penchant for the Santiago Bernabeu, with almost 60% of his El Clasico goals coming at the home of the capital club.
Perhaps the most iconic of those came in injury time of a keenly contested fixture in April 2017, with an in-form Real Madrid having endured a routine red card to Sergio Ramos to equalise through James Rodriguez with just five minutes remaining.
They would have thought this was enough to halt a poor run of home defeats to the Blaugrana but Messi had other ideas, scoring a winner in the second minute of injury time to sink Real Madrid hearts.
To run insult to injury, the Rosario native took off his shirt and cheekily showed the Bernabeu crowd his name and jersey number, as though they needed any reminder of the man who has caused them so much grief over the last decade.
