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What is the story?
Legendary Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid visited the Camp Nou to watch the match between FC Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.
After watching the game, Dravid hailed Lionel Messi by saying "there hasn't been a better player than him ever."
In case you didn't know...
The 46-year-old retired cricketer scored over 13,000 Test runs in 164 matches and managed to amass 10,889 runs in 344 ODI games. As the coach of the Indian Under-19 team, Dravid guided his team to World Cup glory in 2018. The former Indian batsman played the last international match of his career on 16th September 2011 against England and scored 69 runs from 79 balls.
Dravid was a spectator as Barca won 2-0 against Atleti. On that night, the brilliance of two South American magicians helped the Barca team to get closer to La Liga title.
The heart of the matter...
After enjoying the match Dravid commented,
“It’s incredible, it’s a huge honour, it’s one of the things I’ve always wanted to do – come to Camp Nou and watch a football match. To be here and experience the atmosphere, it’s absolutely electric."
Then, he started to hail Messi and Luiz Suarez by saying,
“To be able to watch players like Messi and Suarez play live, it’s fantastic for me and my family. Thanks to Barcelona FC for the hospitality, it’s been excellent.”
He continued to speak about the little magician,
“He’s an absolute genius. It’s incredible to watch what he does and to watch him live… One thing to see with Messi is how fantastic he is with the ball but it is incredible to see how good he is without the ball and how he is able to find spaces. I don’t think there’s been a better player than him ever. It’s fantastic to watch him live."
Rahul further added,
“Cricket is a different game. We have great atmosphere and great crowd in the IPL and a lot of Test matches as well. Cricket is the No.1 sport in India but football is catching up very quickly. The ISL, the new league there since the last few years, Indian football is catching up but yeah, this was a lovely atmosphere to watch. Similar to some of the IPL games that we have.”
Manchester United will welcome FC Barcelona on Wednesday night at Old Trafford in a Champions League clash. And according to Dravid, It would be an exciting game to watch,
“Obviously, it’s one of the most popular clubs in the world and when you have people like Messi, people follow it and everyone watches and follows the La Liga, especially the big games – Barcelona vs Real Madrid or Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid. Looking forward to watching how Barcelona does in the Champions League against ManU in a few days’ time.”
What is next?
Barcelona, who are 11 points clear at the top of the Spanish table, are favourites in their Champions League quarter-final clash against Manchester United.
