5 times Lionel Messi proved he is human

#5: His total domination of the Barcelona side

Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s Barca career was painfully short – perhaps due to Messi’s influence

While it’s not surprising that Barcelona would build their team around Messi – he is arguably the world’s best player after all – sometimes it’s come to the possible detriment of the team’s ambitions. The best example of this? The brief Barca career of Swedish legend Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Signed by Barca from Inter Milan in the summer of 2009 in a deal that saw Samuel Eto’o head the other way, Zlatan was supposed to be the cherry on top of an already pretty epic cake. He’d come to Barcelona to win the one trophy that had always eluded him – the Champions League – and most people figured it was a distinct possibility.

After one season though, Zlatan was back in Milan, this time with AC. While fall-outs with Pep Guardiola definitely contributed to his exit, it turned out he also had a lot of issues with Messi.

Ibrahimovic accused Guardiola of always bending to the need of the Argentine – changing the formation to suit him and to cut out the Swede, and explaining that he felt Messi was jealous of him because he would potentially be the team’s new top goalscorer.

Sure, Ibrahimovic is a known trash-talker, but surely where there’s smoke, there’s fire? Nowadays Messi shares some of the limelight with Neymar and Luis Suarez, but he’s still firmly top dog in the Barca camp and it’s doubtful he’ll give that spot up without a fight – just ask Zlatan.