- Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi celebrates his 30th birthday on Saturday
- The Argentinian forward is scoring more from outside the box than ever
- While Cristiano Ronaldo is reinvented as a striker, Messi thrives from range
- Just 74.07 per cent of his 54 goals last season were from inside the area
The front page of FourFourTwo magazine in
January 2006 showed Ronaldinho stood alongside an 18-year-old by the
name of Lionel Messi. The headline: 'Ronaldinho introduces Messi.'
Ronaldinho was fresh from winning the Ballon d'Or but wanted the focus to be on his Barcelona team-mate with the boyish haircut.
'This award says I'm the best player in the world but I'm not even the best player at Barca,' said Ronaldinho.
Since he began to come and train with us
we knew we would go down this path. Someday I will explain that I was at
the birth of one of the footballing greats: Leo Messi.'
At the time it was considered a stand-out claim. Now, we know it was correct.
Messi was 18 back then. On Saturday he turns 30.
After
12 years and 507 goals, one of the planet's two greatest players has
now joined the other Cristiano Ronaldo in his thirties.
Ronaldo,
32, has said he wants to play on until he is 41 years old, having
adjusted his game to become a fox in the box for Real Madrid.
It
is now rare to see Ronaldo hugging the wing, because that is no longer
his territory. He prefers to be central and in close quarters – a deadly
penalty-box poacher.
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