Column of a player!

Hello everyone! My name is Lionel Andres Messi and from this Season on, I start a column here on the catalan newspaper "Sport".
I'm going to talk about my thoughts of our Season in Barcelona, breaking football news and football in general. I hope all of you will enjoy this column which I will start today when I tell you a few little things about our new Coach Lucho, the new Teammates and what Lucho did, to surprise the whole dressing room!



At the start of the Season, right before we had our fitness tests our former Capi, the icon Carles Puyol came into the dressing room and told us, that we should stay in the room for a few seconds.
Lucho entered the room and introduced himself to us, he shook every single players hand and said hello.
He offered to us, that he wants to regain the status, which we had under Peps' reign.
Loads of players from back then are still in this team or as it is for Puyi he is a part of Luchos coaching staff. Lucho already had talks, after talks, after talks with Puyi about our playing philosophy and what things he needs to improve in comparison to the last year.
He only said about 5 or 6 sentences and then said, "now right after your fitness test, you're having a match against our B-Team, because I want to see how you'll do on the pitch."
Then he left the room.

We all were really surprised and were looking forward to the match.
A couple of new players had been introduced also into the team, players like Ivan Rakitic, Luis Suarez, Douglas, Thomas Vermaelen or Jeremy Mathieu.
They didn't had much time to find a place into the team, before the first match.
Luis needs every single minute on the pitch in the friendlies, as he is banned until the end of october.

And on the other side some important players left the club in order to gain more playing time like Cristian (Tello) or Gerard.
Others wanted to have an more important role in a team and moved to other clubs, like Alexis or Cesc did. This two players had a hugh impact on our game and I can't wait to see, how Lucho will be taking care of all these changes.

Hear you soon,

your Lio!

Very interesting kind of story, I'll be following for sure!

This is really interesting
Hopefully a new update soon

@Jonte-23 and iRoba Thanks, i needed something very new, because I got bored by my other storys. This one really interessts me a lot!

And a new update is in progress!

A Favor for the Coach!

Hola, mes amigos.
A couple of weeks now had passed in this Season and the team is finding itself from day to day. The new players are really fitting in our group an Lucho is really trying to bring back the playing style Pep tought us!
Hopefully everything is going as he planned it out. His plans sounded very good and the Team can't wait to start the Season.

For our Pre-Season Training camp, we went to Portugal were we played some great teams like Braga, Sporting Lisbon or Benfica.
This 10-day trips pupose surely is to gain fitness and inheriting the new tactics as soon as possible. A new Teammate surely is impressing me right now. Young striker Munir is so great in front of the goal and I'm going to help him develop as good as possible, because he is a promise to the clubs future!


Munir in action in the training camp

While we were in Portugal the Coach came to me and asked me for a favour. He got the chance to invite the young norwegian talent Martin Odegaard to join us for a week. Lucho wanted to show him how he could develop at our club, in the case he would sign a contract here.
Lucho asked me to talk to Martin and keep him near to me, as Martin is a hugh fan of me and some people thing I'm his role model.

Martin is a young player who kept his feet on the ground, I was very happy to work with such a young, talented player and really hope he considers joining Barcelona, as I think he would be a great asset to the La Masia.
I talked about him that he can't find a better place to develop himself. He would get loads of gametime in the B-Team and a young player like him shold take every minute on the pitch to gain experience and how can someone say no to a chance to play for Barcelona?
Players and Staff members like Xavi, Andres, Sergio or Carles talked to him, saying that everyone would be happy to see him again! And he seemed to feel comfortable around us, that is always a good think.
So if you may read this Martin, "I can't wait for your desicion, as we would love to have you around us, in our little team, our little family!"


Martin Odegaard in his first Cap for Norway

Now I need to head back to the training ground, see you all soon

your Lio!

Another great update, Ödegaard would be a great signing for Barca!

Seeing old friends in the Champions League group

Hello everyone.
The Pre-Season is over and our first League game was played. I'm glad that I could help the team to get a win and the 3 Points. We need to keep our heads clear, it was only one step out of 38.
Right after our game, the Champions League group were drawn and what a group we got, that will be hard work, to get trough it and move into the next round.

Our first game against Elche was a good start into the Season. We won 4-1 and I was able to have my feet on three goals in the first half, thanks to some great passing moves in order to bring me in front of the goal.
I want to say, that the tackle really hit me and i wasn't diving at all, before the third goal. I don't dive, I want to play and even try to play on, when someone hits me, but I wasn't able to stay on my feet and I think the penalty was the right desicion.

I want to congratulate my Teammate Xavi on achieving his 475th League game, what a record that is! Hopefully sometimes I achieve such a hugh amount of games for this club.


Xavi Hernandez

The Champions League Groups had been drawn, last friday and we were handed a though group.
We luckily are a first seeded team and therefore avoid Teams like Bayern or Chelsea in the group Round.
Our opponents are:



Second Seeded:
Strongest possible opponent: Juventus, Manchester City, Paris St. Germain
Opponent drawn: Bayer Leverkusen

Bayer Leverkusenhave some great talents in their squad. Hakan Calhanoglu for example is a possible European Golden Boy this Year. Bernd Leno is an outstanding goalkeeper and could be the next german Number 1, he will fight for this place with our new number 1 Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
Leverkusen like to play an attacking style of football, an aproach which I really like and they could really become a contender for the first place in this group.

Third Seeded:
Strongest possible opponent: Borussia Dortmund, FC Liverpool, Napoli
Opponent drawn: Olympiakos

We will see Abi again! That will be one of my biggest highlights this Season, for sure! Abi and Ibrahim Affelay now play for Olympiakos and they know us very well and that could be a real problem for us.
Olympiakos got some got players like Pajtim Kasami or Omar Elabdellaoui, which show great potential.
Another player whom is very good is, Alberto Botia. A player who learned a lot in the la Masia.

Fourth Seeded:
Strongest possible opponent: AS Monaco, Celtic, AS Roma
Opponent drawn: AS Roma

Roma is a fourth seeded team, but they clearly are a lot better, than their standing.
It will be great to go against a player of the calibre from Francesco Totti. His career should be something, which all players should aim to achieve!
This team got much more then Totti. Miralem Pjanic is one of the central midfielders who could dominate the football world over the next few years.
Juan Iturbe is a great right winger, who could be a problem for almost every left back, but I trust in Jordi, Mathieu or Adriano to be able to stop him!
Roma should be a team to watch in this years Champions League campaign.

As a resume of the group draw, you can say, that we need to bring our best performances to the pitch from the first kick-off on, to secure a place in the Knockout rounds.
Now we need to work even harder
Hear you soon, your Lio

Authors note

Sorry that I had to edit this update, as my computer crashed while playing and I had to replay the first two games and the CL draw.

On our way!

The first three League games had been played and the first Champions League game is over. We can be really happy with the results we got so far and I'm happy that I already was able to score 11 scorer points until now.
The start with the national team wasn't quite succesful. We won against Mexico and I was able to score the first goal in that game to bring us into the winning lane. The game against Russia was lost and they deserved the win! We played really bad!

The best Moment was to see Abi again on the Pitch. He is a true inspiration for every single professional on this planet. A man who had gone trough all this healthy issues and than he came back and is playing on a very high level. I'm sad that he isn't with our team anymore, but let me tell you this Abi: "We will see us again! I hope you will be back here at the Camp Nou when your playing career is coming to an end. A Man like yours would be a great asset to our staff here, everyone sees it that way! I mean, who would be a better role model for our young talents?"


Abi in action

I felt bad, when I scored and we won against your team.
I hope that you and your team move into the next round with us!

The League games were great. The team is looking good and it doesn't make a difference who is playing. Rafinha, Munir, Sandro and Adama are great players who are new in our first team and bring something new and fresh into the team. Munir had a great debut with 2 goals against Elche, unfortunatly he was injured after our game against Athletic. Athletic played really dirty and that normaly isn't there way to play the game. Ney is our for 3 weeks, after a foul and Munir will be out for 2-3 weeks after another foul.
We won that match against Athletic 2:1, but we lost two great players for the next weeks.

Additional to that, I'm happy that I was able to score 4 goals against Villareal in our 5:1 win against them.
This was the best start in a Season for me, even better than 2012 and I hope that I'll be able to retain that form as long as possible.

Now we need to keep our head clear for the matches against Malaga and Levante in the next 72 hours!
Your Lio

Very nice start to the story, I´m really enjoying it!

@jonte-23 thank you buddy, always appreciate the response! Glad to see that someone enjoys my story!

The Team is growing and growing!

As we are now at the start of October and having played the first 6 League games and 2 Champions League games and we are still unbeaten! And we already played against teams like AS Roma, Villareal or Athletic, Teams who really can cause trouble for almost every team in the World.
The Match we hadn't won was the game against Levante, which we drawn unfortunatly.

I'm also happy with my overall performance. I was able to help the Team with 15 scorer points (10 goals + 5 Assists) up to now. I also took Munir under my wing, as he is shown some promising signs for this club.
This team shows some signs to become a very special Team. It reminds a little bit of the Team of 2011/2012, a really succesful team, which was really determined to win every single game, no matter who the opponent was and how important the game was!
We have some players inductet into the Team, who grow out of la Masia. Sergi Roberto, Rafinha or Munir. Sergi Samper also had his first minutes for our Team and Alex Grimaldo, Adama, Sandro or Dongou-Tsafack. Probably not everyon knows these players by now, but remember these Names, they could be great, if they keep working.

I'm close to breaking the all-time record for most goals in the Liga BBVA. Zarra has 251 goals, just like me, only 1 goal is missing for me to break the record, which would mean a lot to me!
Therefore I would like to thank everyone, who helped me to achieve all this, every former Teammate, Staff member and fan.


Messi, the Argentinian captain

Now I'm off to join the national team to play against Bolivia and to have a Superclassico, that are the games everyone from the Albiceleste loves. I'm also happy to meet Kun and Pablo Zabaleta again. Two good friends of mine!

We want to grow as a Team and we have 4 years to become the World Champions, that is the one missing piece in my career and I want that so badly!
With next years Copa there will be a great test to see, if we can win a Tournament.
Me as the Argentinian captain will give everything to ensure that the Team is determined and focused for success.

Neymars team beats mine

The Superclasico de las Americas was played in China this year and unfortunatly we lost against Brazil with 1:2.
Neymar scored both goals for the brazilian national team and my goal was not enough to win this Superclasico.
At least we are with FC Barcelona on track. We qualified as the group leader after only 4 games from our Champions League group. We won all four games and the other teams had stolen the points from each other, leading to the fact that Olympiakos only have 4 points, but still are on the second place.


Me and Ney against each other!

I'm happy with what our team is able to contribute up to now. We qualified as a first seeded team for the first knockout round in the Champions League and now we are able to rest a few players in the last 2 group games.
This will be a hugh boost for the young players, when they can play in the Champions League and some regular first eleven starters can rest for a few days and this will help to keep us fresh for the rest of the Season.
I think it will be an advantage at the end of the Season in comparison to Real or Athletico who need the other games to qualify.

The biggest boost for us will be the 2:0 win against Real Madrid in the Santiago Bernabeu.
Real Madrid where a even opponent, but we were able to secure the win, with an outstanding defensive performance.
We only allowed Real to have 3 shoots on the target over the whole 90 minutes.
Therefore we weren't as offensive, as we are the past games, but we scored 2 of our 4 shoots on target.
It is always a special feeling to win in the Bernabeu and I'm always happy if i can help with scoring or setting up goals.

The coach held an outstanding Pre-Match speech.
He showed us a short video, with pictures of the cules, after the last wins against Madrid.
It was a short video, but it was really intense. Everyone in the dressing room, no matter if it was a player who played, a player who only sat on the bench the whole game trough or staff member was eager to give the cules a night full of passion and joy.
The coach reminded us, what it means for everyone surrounding the club to win against Madrid and I think that this Pre-match talk was the difference this night.

See you soon,
your Lio