Injury got Lionel Messi as well. Sidelined with a knee problem, Leo Messi is yet to feature for Barcelona this season. His performance in the Copa America was also nothing to write home about. In fact, the Argentine and his team had a highly forgettable outing in the tournament this time around.
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However, the sheer numbers he served up last season is enough to propel him to at least a podium finish in this year's edition of the Ballon d'Or. Let's not forget that this man scored 36 goals and provided 13 assists from 34 appearances in the La Liga last season. 5 of those appearances came from the bench.
He also scored a whopping 12 goals and laid out another 3 in the UEFA Champions League. Like Rio Ferdinand said earlier this week, you simply can't look beyond numbers like that. Let's see what Messi gets upto once he regains full fitness and is ready to unleash the beast once again.
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About the author
Shambhu Ajith
Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.
For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.
Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.
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