Top 5 players who shifted positions successfully in recent times

#1 Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi has had yet another brilliant season

At the start of the season, the football world had collectively decided that Barcelona's time was up. Their midfield generals were in the twilight of their careers. Their supposed future star Neymar Jr. had just made a record-breaking move to PSG and Lionel Messi was left alone up ahead with a Luis Suarez who was growing blunter by the day.

The fact that they were going to have a new manager, Ernesto Valverde, didn't help either. But Valverde is about to finish a dream debut season where his team has already won the league and is looking to end the season without a defeat.

Once again, it is Lionel Messi who is at the center of it all. It took a while for Luis Suarez to come to life this season and during those early days, it was Messi who carried the team on his shoulders. He did that while starting games more centrally as opposed to operating on the right wing.

Messi loves to cut in from the right side and score some peaches but this season, in a false 9 role, he has perfected the art of scoring and creating. From 35 appearances in the La Liga, Messi has scored a staggering 34 goals and assisted 12.

In the UEFA Champions League, where Barcelona slipped up on one decisive night to crash out against Roma, Lionel Messi scored 6 goals and provided 2 assists. He has also scored 4 goals in the Copa del Rey.

Messi has so easily transitioned from the right winger forward's role to the central forward/false 9 role and has simply gone from being the best in the world at one position to being the best in the world at another. And Barcelona could not be more grateful for it.