Inter Miami’s trip last week to face the Kingston -based Cavalier FC in the Concacaf Champions League led Lionel Messi to an unexplored territory: he had never thrown in Jamaica before.
In 1,086 club matches and selection in 48 countries and 179 cities, Messi scored 852 goals. However, this game was the first Caribbean stamp in its soccer player passport.
For a player who fought with an intense longing for home after leaving Rosario, Argentina, to Barcelona at 13, Messi has since enjoyed a career that took him for six continents. Prior to Inter Miami’s departure against Cavalier, Messi had played 873 matches in Europe, 114 in South America, 63 in North America, 29 in Asia, 5 in Africa and 2 in Oceania.
Completing the continental set with a match in Antarctica would be logistically challenging -although last month’s trip to Kansas City, thrown in a -16 ° C climate, was a suitable replacement for ice -covered ground mass and widely uninhabited.
From Melbourne, Australia, Montreal, Messi enchanted crowds worldwide, but her international travel began unstably. His first senior match outside Spain ended in a 2-0 loss to Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine in December 2004.
Eight months later, he ventured beyond Barcelona again for his debut for Argentina, an international friendly against Hungary in Budapest, just to be sent off after two minutes for an apparent elbow, a decision that left the 18 -year -old devastated in tears.
Inevitably, things have improved.
Messi’s traveling career really took off in 2006. He scored his first goal outside Spain in an international friendly against Croatia in Basel, Switzerland. That year, he opened his World Cup account in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, and just a few months later, scored his first goal away from a European club in a German League confrontation against Werder Bremen, a 1-1 draw that was just the beginning of his dominance on the largest continent.
Not surprisingly, Europe has been the playground for much of Messi’s success, with 778 appearances for Barcelona and 75 for Paris Saint-Germain. During his time with both clubs, he scored 704 goals in clubs in 21 countries and accumulated 591 wins, a domain that yielded 12 domestic league titles.
However, the supreme glory of Messi’s career in European clubs lies in its four Champions League titles. These triumphs occurred in countries where their victory rate, by their own high standards, is relatively modest.
In addition to his first title, guaranteed in his absence due to Paris injury against Arsenal in 2006, each of his other Champions League victories was won in a country where he prevailed in less than half of his matches.
See Italy, where he won only 5 of 15 matches – three three against Italian clubs. The other two wins are in opposite extremes of the significance scale: a masterful class in the 2009 Champions League final, in which his head sealed Barcelona’s 2-0 win over Manchester United in Rome; And a much more forgettable victory 2-0 in an international friendly against Angola in Salerno.
England also holds mixed memories for Messi. He raised another Champions League title in 2011, scoring Barcelona’s 3-1 win over Manchester United in Wembley – a nine goals he scored on English soil.
However, despite all his successes, a night in Liverpool in 2019 may have marked the lowest point of his club career. After winning their first 3-0 game, Barcelona collapsed in their return match, suffering a 4-0 loss in Anfield, which remains one of the most impressive twists in Champions League history.
Messi’s final triumph in the Champions League came in Berlin, where Barcelona defeated Juventus 3-1 in the end of 2015. Throughout his career, he played in nine German cities – Gelsenkirche, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Munich, Stuttgart, Leverkusen, Berlin and Dortmund. Despite his extensive trips in Germany, he never won an out -of -home match against Bayern Munich. Bayern also gave him the heaviest defeat of his career, a humiliating 8-2 defeat in Lisbon, when the 2019/20 Champions League was relocated due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite his career in historic and dizzyingly successful European clubs, Messi’s highlight came with Argentina’s blue and white shirt, when in December 2022 he finally raised the World Cup, triumphing over France in a dramatic penalty dispute in Lusail, Qatar.
Argentina has long recognized the value of Messi, and charges accordingly. The rate for a friendly with its captain is estimated at about $ 5 million ($ 28.5 million), a price that led to numerous places. Over the years, Messi has played international friendlies in Australia, Bangladesh, China, England, France, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Norway, Qatar, Russia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States and United States.
Messi had no problem adapting to the United States: his career at MLS has been a thunderous success so far. He scored almost one goal per game again, and his career at Inter Miami included games in 17 cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
He did not start the Inter Miami match in Jamaica, but entered the game on 53 minutes, under a resounding ovation. In one of the game’s final touches, he scored after a pass from Santiago Morales. The clinical finish made the whole stadium roar, with corners of “Messi! Messi!” filling the air.
After the final whistle, Messi was surrounded by opposing players. Only one asked for his shirt; The rest just wanted a selfie.
