Barcelona's starting XI when Lionel Messi made his debut: Where are they now?

Shreyas
Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi

Strikers- Samuel Eto'o and Henrik Larsson

Samuel Eto'o
Samuel Eto'o

Samuel Eto'o is a natural goal scorer and debuted with Real Madrid in 1998. He failed to make too much of an impact and after being loaned to Espanyol, he played for La Liga club Mallorca. He showed his talent and eye for the goal and after a successful stint there, it was time to move on to a bigger club but this time, Real Madrid's rivals, Barcelona. He was signed by Barca in 2004 and was highly successful and scored a lot of goals. He was instrumental in 2006 when Barcelona won the Treble. He scored a total of 130 goals in 199 matches for Barca and in 2009, he signed to play for Inter Milan.

He played well in Inter scoring 53 goals in 102 matches before signing for Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala. He stayed there for 3 seasons and scored 36 goals. Then he signed for Chelsea and Everton in successive seasons in the Premier League. He then played for many clubs like Sampdoria, Antalyaspor, Konyaspor and is currently with Qatar club Qatar SC. In 753 matches he has played in, he has scored 368 goals. He had a successful international career and has scored 56 goals in 118 matches.


Henrik Larsson

Henrik Larsson playing for Celtic
Henrik Larsson playing for Celtic

Henrik Larsson is one of the greatest Swedish players and was a prolific goalscorer. His best time was when he was with Celtic from 1997 to 2004. After playing for Swedish clubs Högaborg and Helsingborg, he played 4 seasons for Dutch club Feyenoord before going to Scottish club Celtic. Here, Larsson scored 242 goals in 313 matches before signing for Barcelona. At Barca, he couldn't replicate the same goal scoring spree and scored only 19 goals in 59 matches. But he played a key role in Barca's Champions League triumph in 2006, especially in the final where he gave both the assists in their 2-1 victory over Arsenal.

He then moved to Helsinborg again and was loaned out to Manchester United and scored 3 goals and then moved back to Helsinborg. In his second stint with the Swedish club, Larsson scored 54 goals. In total, he scored 434 goals in 769 matches. Larsson won the 1994 World Cup Bronze medal with Sweden and was successful in international football. He scored 37 goals in 106 appearances. He retired in 2009 and became a manager later. He has managed clubs like Landskrona BOlS, Falkenberg and Helsinborg and is currently the assistant manager of Swedish club Angelholm.

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Edited by Kingshuk Kusari
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