The diminutive genius talks us through the most iconic moments of his illustrious career, with journalists, teammates and opponents offering insight and analysis into the goals and games that will define his legacy.
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06:28And I see in the eyes of Messi when he is able to create in the field a absolute psychosis in the rival.
06:38He, as Ronaldo did, the gorgito phenomenon, provoca fear.
06:44And that fear inmovilizes the rival.
06:48He is one of the few futbolists who is able to congelar the image.
06:54It seems that the rest of the defense doesn't move.
06:58It seems like if they were congelados by the effect of Leo Messi.
07:01Leo Messi provoca that effect.
07:03And it provoca especially in the Real Madrid players.
07:17I don't think about the game when I am in the field.
07:23And it goes and it was like this.
07:27And it was like this.
07:28It's like this.
07:29We are opening the space and finding the way to keep going.
07:32And it ended up with the game, which ended up being.
07:35But just to get the goal, I can't imagine anything.
07:38What I always remember is a game in training, the boys from Barça B, we always mix the team.
07:46I was with a player from Barça B, where the Messi encarou him.
07:50And I was behind, against the goal.
07:52I said, don't enter, don't enter.
07:55Then the guy went back, and went back.
07:57I said, stop, stop.
07:58And when he went to shoot, we just took the camera.
08:00He just went inside, the two on the floor.
08:03So, if you enter, he'll take the ball.
08:07He'll take the ball.
08:09So, it's almost impossible to mark him.
08:11Messi, we've been fighting since the base category.
08:16When Messi came out for football in 2005, the World Cup in England.
08:20We did the semifinals, Brazil and Argentina.
08:23And he was the best player in the game.
08:26He was the best player in the competition.
08:28So, everyone saw that there was a phenomenon.
08:31Everyone goes firm on him.
08:33He doesn't answer anything.
08:35He doesn't complain.
08:36I've never seen him complain of a stronger point.
08:39This is a difference.
08:40Everyone knows that the more you hit, he'll come up.
08:43So, it's great.
08:44I admire him.
08:45You can influence him.
08:46You can отк ortize him more than...
08:47What a do you think.
08:48You can give him a while.
08:49You can play a lot more than I have.
08:50You can play a lot.
08:51You can defend him.
08:52You can play some shows.
08:53All right.
08:54I'm going to play a lot more.
08:55You can play on a tournament.
08:56You can play a lot more.
08:57You can play a lot more you can play with him.
08:58The Olympics were the most special in my career,
09:07one of the most remembered, the most beautiful,
09:10for what the Olympic Games mean,
09:13not only for being a champion,
09:15we had the chance to achieve it,
09:17but also for the experience that I had to live
09:20in the little while we were in the Olympic Games.
09:23I have a very beautiful memory of that championship.
09:27The Olympics were an outstanding day.
09:30We tried many times, we lost finals,
09:33and it was special.
09:35Bielsa convinced everybody that it was worth it.
09:39Leo, I think he had these issues with Barcelona
09:43about being released.
09:45He managed to get there.
09:47It was very important.
09:48It was an outstanding day.
09:49We won World Cups, but the Olympic Games
09:51is something that we really, really wanted.
09:53In fact, our neighbors, the Brazilians,
09:55they had to wait a bit longer than us,
09:57and they also waited for a long time.
09:58So the Olympic football,
10:00it's not a World Cup,
10:01but it's very, very important.
10:02It was something that Leo Messi
10:05was fundamental to achieve.
10:07It was very important.
10:08But for anybody to doubt what he's been doing for Argentina,
10:14it's outrageous,
10:17and I think they probably will realize when he's gone.
10:19In a way, Argentina is living a golden era,
10:23because they've been in a World Cup Final,
10:25they've been in two American Cup Finals,
10:28and when you win or lose,
10:31it's just down to little details.
10:33It could have gone one way or the other.
10:35Some of them, of course,
10:36were goals in extra time
10:39or were wins at penalty shootouts.
10:42So to say that Leo Messi is not doing well with Argentina
10:46is basically not realizing that they are living a special moment.
10:49It can happen.
11:01It's been a game that are different ways.
11:02I also got to block Madrid and lost for 4 games.
11:04There are circumstances that are given,
11:06for one thing or another,
11:11and, well,
11:12one of them has never been able to win that game.
11:14It's special for everyone,
11:18and how he won in Bernabéu, because he had been a new position for me in that game,
11:27because he had invented something new with me, and we would probably be talking about all of that.
11:36Well, for sure it's not the easiest player to stop.
11:40You know, he has so many qualities and he can do so many different things
11:46and it's difficult to find out how to stop him.
11:49I was in that match, I remember that when we ended the match,
11:54we came back together in the flight, and I said,
11:58have you seen the best match of Leo Messi?
12:01He said, no, the best match will be the next match.
12:05But that day, you saw the faces of the people in Bernabéu,
12:11and everyone said, oh my God, why Messi is the Barça?
12:16Yes, obviously, in that moment, I thought, I imagined that goal,
12:28and well, I understand, and thanks to God, it came out,
12:32and it was a very important goal in all the senses,
12:38for me, in the individual, for the team, for how it was in the final,
12:43and I think it was one of the most beautiful goals for me.
12:48The truth is that at that moment, it seemed difficult to win
12:53with Ferdinand in front, but well, it fell right where I was,
12:58where I didn't have a mark, and it was right in the center for me.
13:03I took a chance to move on to the first game, definitely
13:13and I was thinking about it.
13:14There was a good team to defend themselves well,
13:16and there was pertinent, there was Ferdinand, there was Vida,
13:19there was Patrice, there were players who were experienced in football,
13:22and we knew that we would be playing with a great quality team.
13:25At the same time, we had to defend ourselves, but we used players to live with,
13:29like Cristiano Ronaldo, like Tev, like Rune, like Disson Park, like Giggs.
13:33So for us, we were at the same level of Barcelona this year,
13:36because we had already won the English Championship,
13:38and we were also disputing the second Champions League team.
13:42So we were very confused.
13:50That was the moment of the game where we were above the Barcelona,
13:54where Tevys had lost a ball, where he had crossed,
13:57he had shot, the goalie had caught,
13:59and we were winning the Barcelona.
14:01At the moment, we were taking care of him, and he ended up winning the game.
14:04Daniel Alves.
14:06The final Champions League 2009 started really in the Clásico previously,
14:12because just before the Clásico, Pepe Guardiola asked very late in the day
14:20Leo Messi to come to the training ground.
14:23Messi doesn't leave far away from it.
14:25and showed him some clips, some videos, and said,
14:27you know that space here, in between the holding midfielders and the centre-backs,
14:31I want you to play there.
14:32That was the beginning of the false nine role that he played for Barcelona.
14:37Barcelona killed Real Madrid,
14:40but of course, it seems to me that Manchester United had not stood that game properly,
14:44because what happened in the Champions League final was that Messi started on the right-hand side,
14:50Eto'o was in the centre of the attack, and after 10 minutes,
14:55having Cristiano Ronaldo had a chance for Manchester United that could have put them ahead,
14:59still 0-0, and Pepe Guardiola asked Eto'o and Messi to change places.
15:05So Eto'o went onto the right-hand side, Messi came inside, and then he became not just a false nine,
15:11but linked as well with the midfield. They created superiority in the midfield.
15:16Manchester United did not know how to deal with that,
15:18and basically, that was the beginning of the victory of Barcelona.
15:37It's something very beautiful to be the goalkeeper of a so beautiful league,
15:43so important,
15:44that has been a lot of players of a lot of level players in this league,
15:50and to be the best player,
15:52it's a very good statistic.
15:58Well, I remember when he beat the record,
16:00I was talking to Leo,
16:01you remember Zahra, he was a mythic player,
16:04he had an absolute record,
16:06and he told me,
16:07I don't play for the records,
16:09I play to play it well.
16:11This is a player that my generation
16:14have not seen before.
16:15I don't think we've ever seen before,
16:18and it's down to the consistency of his efforts,
16:21his performances in big games as well.
16:24The fact that he's carried a team like Barcelona to win everything,
16:28and Barcelona won with Guardiola,
16:31with Tito Villanova,
16:32with Tata Martino,
16:33with Luis Enrique,
16:35and in the middle of all that,
16:37there was one thing coinciding,
16:39and that was Messi.
16:40So we're talking about the team that perhaps
16:42is one of the greatest in history,
16:44certainly one that has changed history,
16:46but again,
16:47it coincides that has Messi in it.
16:50It was a long day,
17:00because everything was done,
17:02being the 500 goal,
17:05the 3-2 goal in the last minute,
17:06a game where if we didn't win,
17:09we practically didn't leave the league.
17:13It was a goal that gave us hope
17:16to continue to dream about the league.
17:19It was a game that we deserved to win,
17:21because it had been done.
17:22And, well,
17:23winning in the last minute
17:24was very special for all the barcelonists.
17:29For me,
17:30because he is the best player in the world,
17:32it was,
17:33for me,
17:33he managed to stay for 10 years
17:36at the same level,
17:38and his level is different from the rest.
17:41To be able to do it for 10 years,
17:43it's something very little,
17:46or almost nothing.
17:48Then,
17:49it adds up to the quality that he has,
17:52and it becomes the best in history.
17:56I think the goal is not all in a game,
18:14or in a player.
18:15I think the goal is to be a surreal player,
18:26a player out of the planet.
18:39One of the greatest in the last years,
18:42and he is so influential for Barcelona.
18:52It's impossible to do it simply.
18:54In the training,
18:55he does things that no one does,
19:00but in a way that he almost didn't do it.
19:03So, that's what I think it makes the difference.
19:12What I think it's less about him,
19:14it's going to be a lot,
19:15because it's a guy who doesn't have comments,
19:16what he does inside the field,
19:18it's inexplicable.
19:19He's a great player.
19:26Leo Messi is a source of happiness.
19:28Happiness is the highest level, right?
19:30Here they say that Leo Messi is better
19:32than to do love with your partner,
19:34because it's more prolonged than to do Leo Messi.
19:38And that's what people feel here in Barcelona.
19:46This question about Messi being the greatest player ever,
19:48it's one that perhaps in ten years' time
19:50we'll look back and say,
19:52why didn't we even ask?
20:08His name is definitely true.
20:10He won't be the highest level of faith in the world,
20:12but he won't be the greatest player ever.
20:14Done.
20:16One other day,
20:18I think the best player ever will be the greatest player ever.
20:20So, we'll be there.
20:22One other day,
20:24we'll be there.
20:24Until then,
20:26the only one has a chance.
20:28I think it's the best player ever.
20:30He's going to be the best player ever,
20:32because he's the best player ever.
20:34James...
20:36what I think is a key player ever.