'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
What's the story?
22-year old Brazilian midfielder Arthur has had a fantastic debut season with Barcelona, becoming a first-team regular and the heartbeat of the Blaugrana midfield along with Sergi Busquets and Ivan Rakitic. The Brazil international was all praises for his talismanic club captain Lionel Messi
in a recent interview with Mundo Deportivo, remarking that "he reads football like nobody else"
In case you didn't know...
22-year old box-to-box midfielder Arthur was signed from Brazilian outfit Gremio, at the start of the season for a whopping 40 million Euros (£35.5m), with the deal also including a 400 million Euros (£451m) buy-out clause. He is regarded as the long term successor for Xavi and has impressed all pundits in his debut season. A midfield metronome with superb passing ability, the dimunitive Arthur has an impressive 93.6% pass success percentage this season.
Barcelona beat Real Sociadad 2-1 on Saturday, with Messi having a rare scoreless game. But he contributed the assist for Jordi Alba's winner. Ernesto Valverde's side are on the hunt for the treble this season. They are the runaway leaders in La Liga, have reached the finals of the Copa del Rey and demolished Manchester United 4-0 on aggregate en-route to reaching the UEFA Champions League semi-finals.
Messi has scored 45 goals and made 15 assists in all competitions in the present campaign. 'La Pulga' is currently leading both the UEFA Champions League and La Liga goalscoring charts.
The heart of the matter
Arthur couldn't hide his admiration for club captain and Barcelona talisman Messi. He said:
"It’s a strange feeling, even today I say to myself, ‘Oh wow it’s Messi.’ Messi is amazing, on and off the field. He is our technical leader and in the dressing room, he is fantastic, he reads football like nobody else, he is extremely intelligent.
Arthur also expalined how Messi has taken young players like himself and Malcom under his wing, and has helped them adapt to the Barcelona style.
He talks not only with me, with everyone, with Malcolm, with all of us who are new, he speaks and is interested in our adaptation.”
What's next?
Barcelona next face Alaves in La Liga on Tuesday night, as they look to wrap up the La Liga title.
