There was a time at Barcelona when watching Lionel Messi take on defenders felt almost unfair.
This 72-second montage captures some of those moments perfectly. Messi receives the ball, approaches a group of defenders and somehow gets them twerking in the wrong direction.
One defender goes one way, another follows, and before they know it, they are either running into each other or ending up on the ground kissing, cuddling or hugging each other lol.
What made Messi so difficult to defend was not just his incredible close control. He had an almost ridiculous ability to manipulate defenders with unpredictable movement.
A small change of direction, a body feint or a sudden burst of acceleration was often enough to send an opponent the wrong way.
During his days at Barcelona, we saw this repeatedly, and it continued throughout his career. Messi could make two or three defenders commit themselves before simply taking the ball into the space they had left behind.
Sometimes the reactions were so awkward that they became comedy, but for the defenders involved, there was nothing funny about it.
His dribbling was one of the biggest reasons Messi became the Greatest Player of All Time (GOAT). He wasn’t simply beating defenders; he was controlling their decisions.
And, of course, whenever clips like this appear online, the GOAT debate is never far away. Some fans see moments like these as further proof of Messi’s extraordinary ability, while others will inevitably find a way to downplay them.
Either way, Messi at Barcelona was something special. And don’t say prime Messi because Messi never had a prime! Messi is Messi and he’s always been magnificent from the day he kickstarted his professional football career.
Read: 6 Historic FIFA World Cup Records Lionel Messi Reached Against Austria
