Barcelona celebrate 20 years of Lionel Messi

Messi joined the club, aged just 13, on 17 September 2000 with the dream of becoming a footballer at the Camp Nou and he initially joined the youth ranks of the Blaugrana, as reported by Marca.

Standing at just 1.48m tall, few expected Messi to make it at the top level but his immense talent was obvious from the start and it continued to blossom year after year.

Messi has gone on to score a club record 634 goals in 731 official first-team appearances which not only is more goals than any other player in Barcelona’s history, but more than the tallies of the second, third and fourth highest on that list combined.

He has won 33 trophies for the club including 10 La Liga titles and four Champions League crowns, while he has won five Ballon d’Or awards.