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It's been 18 years since a small kid from the streets of Rosario, Argentina came to Barcelona to pursue his dream of playing football. Those 18 years have been packed with many goals, assists and trophies; the current 21st century FC Barcelona will be always remembered as Lionel Messi's Barca.
Since Messi's debut in 2004 for the senior FC Barcelona team, he has scored 585 goals (club record) which includes 408 goals (again a record) in LaLiga and 106 (second highest) in the UEFA Champions League. He also has scored 65 goals (national record) for Argentina.
Messi has won a record 5 Ballon d'Or trophies and 5 Golden Boots. He is the only player in history to score 40+ club goals in 9 consecutive seasons. He also has the most appearances in the FIFPro World XI (11 times), and is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most official goals in a calendar year (91 goals). He has also scored in the highest number of consecutive league matches - 33 goals in 21 matches.
For the last 10 seasons, we have become used to seeing Messi do magic on the pitch with his footballing ability. He is the play maker, goalscorer and assist provider for the team. His vision and ball control are exquisite, and he is always there when the team needs him the most.
Since I started watching football in 2009, I have never seen a footballer do things as extraordinary with the ball as Messi. The man became the best free kick taker in the world (10 free kicks in 2018) just because he wanted to.
In recent seasons we have witnessed Real Madrid winning 3 Champions League titles in a row, with Barcelona getting eliminated from the quarterfinals in those same 3 years. But over those three seasons, it is debatable whether any player has been individually better than Messi.
Team performances have overshadowed Messi's individual performances in a lot of instances. Nobody has scored more goals than Messi (146) in the last three seasons. Recently, he also became the only player to score 25+ league goals in the last 10 seasons.
If you keep doing the same things over and over again for a long period of time, people get used to it. They no longer see the things you do as extraordinary, as they have been seeing you do them for a long period of time. We are used to seeing Messi perform consistently week in and week out for the last decade. We are so used to it that it looks normal for us.
The latest Ballon d'Or ranking in 2018 placed Messi in the 5th position. We all know that performance and stats-wise, nobody was better than Messi in 2018. But in the eyes of the world, those things he does are normal; he is the victim of his own greatness.
Who is the most underrated player in the world? Different people would have different names in their mind. But, in my mind, there is only one name - Lionel Messi.
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