Top 5 memes featuring Lionel Messi

We live in a time where the exploration of the earth is almost complete, but we are still far away from creating the necessary objects to make the journey through space and explore it and discover the uncharted territories (given how us humans are prone to destroying things, we can only thank God for that).

Despite being born too early for space exploration and too late for earth exploration, our generation was born just at the right time to enjoy the laughs that memes provide us with. Memes might seem like a simple thing to some, but for some others, it is a way of life.

Basically, a meme is something used to make people laugh – so its reach is far and wide and can be used for just about anything: and that includes football.

And since Lionel Messi is perhaps the greatest player of his generation, here are 5 best memes featuring the Argentine...

#5. Italian Messi

Messi is perhaps fluent in Italian

If you have been on the internet and have followed the meme cul... okay, actually, if you have just been on the internet and have the tendency to mindlessly scroll down your Facebook or Twitter or Instagram homepages, then you are most likely to be aware of the ‘How Italians’ meme template.

It is simply a template where the tip of the five fingers of the right hand are brought together and a photo is clicked, which is then uploaded with a caption suited to the content of the picture.

And this is exactly what we can see in this meme as Lionel Messi has brought together the tips of his fingers while trying to communicate – probably saying What The ****– with someone that can’t be seen in the picture.

Messi with a pose like this? Can’t miss such a glorious meme-making chance.

#4. Clothesline

Messi going the South Asian way of drying clothes

Lionel Messi and the Clasicos is a love affair that is almost as good as his and his wife, Antonella’s. With 25 goals in the clashes, he is the top scorer of the much-heated and much-hyped encounter. However, there once was a time when he went on a barren run even in the Clasicos.

Indeed, such was his barren run that he went 6 Clasicos without scoring a goal – his longest drought against Madrid in his illustrious career. The magnitude of his drought could be best understood in the light of the fact that rival Cristiano Ronaldo went from two Ballon d’Ors to four Ballon d’Ors before Messi could break the infamous streak.

And it happened in a potentially season-defining encounter last April. A win for Real Madrid would virtually win them the title then and there itself, but a victory for Barcelona would put Madrid under the pressure of winning every game to win the league by the end of the season.

Real Madrid were trailing when James Rodriguez came in and equalised for the Whites with only a few minutes to go. The clock was ticking and as injury time was reaching its final stages, Madrid decided to go for the win. But after losing the possession deep in Barcelona’s half, Sergi Roberto bombed forward unchallenged.

The result of this move was a Messi goal in the final minute of injury time – which all but guaranteed a Barca win – and he ran off to celebrate by taking off his shirt and showing his name on its back to the crowd at the Bernabeu.

However, in the end, it didn’t matter since Real Madrid won the league and Barca ended with only the Copa del Rey – rendering this celebration futile and, hence, giving us an epic meme.

#3. He scores many goals

Messi just doesn't like scoring a single goal

Some things in life are constant. Death, taxes, lying politicians, entire towns getting drowned after frog’s pee worth of rain, me making completely random and unrelated analogies whilst writing articles and Lionel Messi scoring – and not necessarily just the one in one game.

The English language is apparently the one with most number of words but when you try to describe the abilities of Lionel Messi, you might still run out of superlatives. Such is the ability of the Argentina captain – not only on the field but off it as well.

The former Newell’s kid is a beast when it comes to scoring goals. It doesn't matter if it is a goal from a free-kick or a long-range power-shot or a classic Messi-esque goal after dribbling past a gazillion players - he knows his way out when it is about scoring in a game.

The structure of this meme is based purely on his ability to find the net multiple times in the same game which is a sight of astonishment and one that shouldn't be missed.

#2. They don’t retire

This is just too hilarious

One of the things about the Argentina captain is that despite being a phenomenon that has won almost a million trophies with Barcelona while also scoring just a little less than a billion goals for the Blaugrana, he is still not regarded as the greatest player ever by some section of the football fraternity.

The reason? His failures with Argentina. Despite playing in three finals in a row – World Cup 2014, Copa America 2015 and 2016 – he has failed to win an international trophy in his career and it seems unlikely that he ever might due to the fact that the next World Cup is in the colder country of Russia, where the performances of South American countries might not reflect their true quality.

So when Lionel Messi failed to win a final for the third time in a row with Argentina in the 2016 Copa America - and that, too, after missing a penalty in the shootout - he immediately decided to quit international football and focus on club football instead. The football fraternity went berserk and it was only after a lot of convincing did he retract his retirement decision.

The decision might have been an impulsive one after missing the penalty and subsequently losing to Chile, but this meme is just fabulous.

#1. Man of the match

Always the MOTM

You watch a Barcelona game and you begin to realise that superhuman players are actually a thing. Actually, it is not Barcelona, it is just Lionel Messi. The Argentine’s ability to dazzle viewers and bamboozle defenders has always left the mere mortals wondering as to how all that is even possible.

Lionel Messi has displayed brutal efficiency in almost every game since his debut. The Argentine rarely ever has a bad game and it is actually a real once in a blue moon type of a situation to witness the former Newell’s kid have a poor game.

And this meme is just to troll that. I mean, yeah, sure, Messi is cool, God-esque and all that, but there are often matches where he doesn’t really play to the best of his powers and, hence, doesn’t deserve the man of the match award.

And, yet, he goes away with the award. In most cases anyway.