Ronaldinho speaking- "Lionel Messi burst onto the scene at Barcelona as a fresh-faced teenager".It was patently clear that Catalonians had a future superstar on their hands.On the 16th of November 2003,Argentine made his senior debut in a friendly match against Jose Mourinho's Porto and earned himself a regular place in Barcelona's training squad. Almost a year passed before Messi made another appearance for the first team in October 2004,after the senior players spoke to the then manager Frank Rijkaard he was given his opportunity. It took Messi almost seven (7) months to record his first senior goal for Barcelona, which came against Albacete in May 2005.
At that moment, the Brazilians knew Messi was something special. Ronaldinho rejoined Barcelona as a club ambassador earlier this month,speaking at his unveiling, he was inevitably asked about his former teammates career. In response, the 36 years old reflected on his time alongside Messi and revealed what went through his head when he watched Messi score against Albacete all these years ago.In quotes relayed by @barcastuff-real,he said "look at what Messi is doing, he can do many things,there is nobody like him, when Messi scored his first goal against Albacete I assisted him.He is the same person he was back then.Messi is the best of his time, like [Diego] Maradona and others were in the past "."When I saw Messi back then I saw a monster ". Any advice to Messi? "No Messi never needed advice. He has always been very clever". So unbelievably talented was Messi as a teenager that Ronaldinho likened him to a monster- the good kind of course. But even the Brazil legend couldn't have predicted what Messi would go on to achieve throughout his time at the Camp Nou. Since making history Albacete 12 years ago Messi has overtaken Cesar Rodriguez as the club's all time top goal scorer (483) and become La Ligas all time top goal scorer (327).And then his trophy collection includes eight La Liga titles, four Copa Del Reys and four champions League winner's medals.
Messi will be a legend that Camp Nou and Barcelona will never forget.I wish him the best.
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