🐐Messi marks 21 years since his La Liga debut | OneFootball

On October 16, 2004, against Espanyol and wearing the number 30, a player named Leo Messi made his debut in La Liga. The rest is history.

Every great story has a beginning, and Leo Messi’s with Barça in La Liga began exactly 21 years ago today. A young 17-year-old player made his first appearance in the top national competition.

Wearing the number 30, against Espanyol and coming on as a substitute for Deco—now the club’s sporting director—Messi made his La Liga debut with Barcelona, unaware of all that was yet to come.

He would go on to play a total of 520 La Liga matches, scoring 474 goals, making him the top scorer in the history of the competition. He was also the player with the most assists in history, with 192, and the one with the most hat tricks, with 36.

A total of ten La Liga titles and eight times as the league’s top scorer. Every story has a beginning—Messi’s in La Liga began exactly 21 years ago.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.

📸 JOSEP LAGO - AFP OR LICENSORS