With Lionel Messi, who has scored 613 goals in 700 appearances, Barcelona know they have one of the greatest footballers to ever play the game in their team right now and they are not hiding it.
The Catalan club is known to go to great lengths to make sure the six-time Ballon D’Or winner is comfortable: he is believed to influence player signings and choice of managers at the club.
Barcelona went further to humour the 32-year-old on social media on Saturday.
Releasing their matchday 21 squad against Valencia, the Spanish champions called every other player by their names but called the diminutive Argentine “Goat“, an abbreviation for Greatest Of All Time.
See tweet:
The #ValenciaBarça Squad
1. ter Stegen
2. N. Semedo
3. Piqué
4. I. Rakitic
5. Sergio
8. Arthur
10. Goat
15. Lenglet
17. Griezmann
18. Jordi Alba
20. S. Roberto
21. F. de Jong
22. Vidal
23. Umtiti
24. Junior
26. Iñaki Peña
30. Collado
31. Ansu Fati
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) January 25, 2020
The gesture quickly sparked a debate on Twitter, where the list was shared, and football lovers soon began to compare Messi with his eternal rival and Juventus star, Cristiano Ronaldo.
For more than a decade, Messi and Ronaldo have dominated world football, winning 11 Ballon D’Or titles between them.
While Messi has won 4 UEFA Champions League, 10 Spanish La Liga, 6 Copa del Rey and a host of other titles with Barcelona, Ronaldo has won 5 UEFA Champions League, 7 league (England, Spain, Italy), UEFA Euro, UEFA Nations League, and a host of others with club and country.
However, the debate still rages on who is the greater between both footballers.
Who do you think is greater?
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