El Clasico: 4 incredible stats that show that Lionel Messi is the King of the fixture

Modified Oct 28, 2018 07:26 GMT

#3 Most assists (14)

Lionel Messi made his debut in the fierce fixture in November 2005. Following a string of impressive displays, the then Barcelona Coach Frank Rijkaard put him alongside Samuel Eto'o and the great Ronaldinho to make up a fabulous front 3.

For the 69 minutes that he was on the pitch before being replaced by Iniesta, Messi tormented the Madrid defence, toying with Roberto Carlos, Helguera and Ramos. His first venture was just the sign of things to come.

As early as the 15th minute, Messi showed his class, zipping around the defence and setting up Eto'o to score the opener. It was his first assist of the tie and over the years, he has picked up a total of 14 assists in 38 El Clásicos, a number that has never been achieved before. Cristiano Ronaldo has just 1 assist to his name in 30 games between the Spanish giants.

Who can forget the El Clasico last season, when he lost his boot and still served up an assist?

About the author

Deepungsu is a veteran football journalist who has been covering daily transfer roundups and news for over six years at Sportskeeda. He has written over 8500 articles for the website, and has garnered over 19.5Million reads.

Deepungsu holds a PG degree in Microbiology and an MBA degree in Total Quality Management. He has an extensive two-decade long writing experience, which includes a decade of sports blogging. His writing prowess has even led his work getting cited on the legendary Franz Beckenbauer's Wikipedia page.

Inspired by Diego Maradona, Deepungsu played as an attacking midfielder for his local club at subdivision level in his initial years and scored an important goal or two. However, his all-time favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and evidently, he feels Argentina's glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment for fulfilling his long-standing dream. He is also an ardent East Bengal fan.

Deepungsu has been a Manchester United supporter since the year 2000. Unsurprisingly, his favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson and the Scotsman helped him get through some of the toughest days of his life. Like the fiery Scot, Deepungsu also leaves no stone unturned when it comes to accuracy in articles and only relies on credible sources.

Despite believing in Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland to create an iconic rivalry, Deepungsu reckons no one can match the longevity of Messi and Ronaldo. He spends his leisure time writing about life on his blog, reading books, and playing the guitar.

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Edited by Sagnik Mallick