20 years of Messi: Ranking his seasons from worst to first

On Oct. 16, 2004, in the 82nd minute of a 1-0 win against local rival Espanyol, Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard made a substitution. Off went Deco, the game’s lone scorer, and on came a 17-year-old Argentine named Lionel Messi.

Acquired from Newell’s Old Boys as an undersized 13-year-old, the intense, shaggy-haired teenager didn’t do a whole lot in his eight minutes on the pitch. In fact, he would continue playing primarily for the Barcelona B team during the 2004-05 season and wouldn’t score his first goal for the senior team until the following May. But those eight minutes were the start point for everything that followed.

Wednesday marks the 20th anniversary of Messi’s professional debut and the start of a career that has since encompassed many achievements. Those honors include eight Ballons d’Or, four UEFA Champions League titles, a FIFA World Cup title, an Olympic gold medal, two Copa América titles, 12 league titles (and one Supporters’ Shield!), three FIFA Club World Cup wins, nearly 20 domestic cups and super cups, countless varieties of Golden Boots and Balls, more than 800 goals, more than 50 hat tricks and the most assists of any soccer player on record.

To commemorate Messi’s 20 years in the soccer spotlight, ESPN looks back at each year by ranking them from 20th to first, and discusses the highs and lows of his storied career. This isn’t a simple ranking of when he scored the most goals — rather, it’s an attempt at bringing together his individual, club and international accomplishments. In fact, his single best individual season doesn’t actually rank No. 1.

ESPN recently named Messi the best soccer player and third-best athlete of the 21st century. His lowest-ranked seasons were excellent, and his best seasons transcended all known possibilities.

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I. The rise

20. 2004-05 | Barcelona

Club stats: 9 apperances, 234 minutes, 1 goal, 0 assists
Trophies: LaLiga
International stats: N/A
Ballon d’Or finish: N/A

Everyone has to start somewhere. Messi was 17 years, 3 months and 22 days old when he made his debut, and he was an occasional substitute while still logging most of his minutes (17 games and 6 goals) with Barca B. After a typically obscene dinked pass from Ronaldinho, he scored his first professional goal against Albacete on May 1, 2005. The first of many.

19. 2005-06 | Barcelona

Club stats: 25 appearances, 1,419 minutes, 8 goals, 3 assists
Trophies: UEFA Champions League, LaLiga
International stats: 10 appearances, 431 minutes, 2 goals, 3 assists
Ballon d’Or finish: 20th

Barcelona had to fend off a massive offer from Inter Milan after Messi turned 18. However, he remained with the club and slowly worked his way into more consistent first-team action, scoring a brace against Mallorca in January coming off the bench and playing in both legs of Barca’s Champions League round-of-16 win over Chelsea. His season ended there, however, because of a hamstring injury, and he was on the sideline for Barca’s 2-1 victory over Arsenal in the Champions League final.

18. 2006-07 | Barcelona

Club stats: 36 appearances, 2,765 minutes, 17 goals, 3 assists
Trophies: Spanish Supercopa
International stats: 10 appearances, 785 minutes, 4 goals, 2 assists
Ballon d’Or finish: Third

The 19-year-old became a prime contributor in the 2006-07 season, albeit on a Barca squad that fell short of major honors — they were second to Real Madrid in LaLiga and fell to Liverpool in the Champions League round of 16. He bagged a hat trick against Real Madrid in March, and 13 of his 17 goals in all competitions came in the last 14 matches of the season. It was enough to give the Argentine his first Ballon d’Or podium finish that same year as his star was rising quickly.

17. 2007-08 | Barcelona

Club stats: 40 appearances, 2,959 minutes, 16 goals, 13 assists
Trophies: None
International stats: 10 appearances, 842 minutes, 3 goals, 3 assists
Ballon d’Or finish: Second

Barca made big moves after the failures (relatively speaking) of the 2006-07 season, bringing in Thierry Henry, Eric Abidal and Yaya Touré among others. Messi started the year beautifully, with 12 goals in his first 17 matches, but he again battled hamstring injuries in the second half of the season, and Barca fell to third in LaLiga while bowing out in the semifinals of both the Champions League and Copa del Rey.

Rijkaard was sent packing and he was replaced by an inexperienced manager named … Pep Guardiola.

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II. Late-career ups and downs

16. 2021-22 | Paris Saint-Germain

Club stats: 34 appearances, 2,903 minutes, 11 goals, 14 assists
Trophies: Ligue 1, Finalissima
International stats: 11 appearances, 914 minutes, 10 goals, 2 assists
Ballon d’Or finish: N/A

From the early stages of his career, we flip to a year near the very end. Messi’s first season with PSG was defined primarily by the fact that he was with PSG at all. Barca’s rampant financial issues — prompted at least in part by expensive signings designed to make Messi happy — led to his tearful 2021 goodbye. For much of the 2021-22 season, his play felt almost reserved.

Messi perked up for the Champions League, scoring five goals in the group stage, and he certainly had fun moments of interplay with new teammates Kylian Mbappé and Neymar as PSG rolled to the Ligue 1 crown. But in a development not entirely uncommon in the latter stages of his career, probably his most noteworthy performances came with Argentina over the summer: He had two assists in their Finalissima win (Copa América winner vs. Euros winner) over Italy, then scored five goalsEstonia.

15. 2019-20 | Barcelona

Club stats: 44 appearances, 3,812 minutes, 31 goals, 25 assists
Trophies: None
International stats: 2 appearances, 180 minutes, 2 goals, 1 assist
Ballon d’Or finish: No award given in 2020

After losing Neymar to PSG in a market-shifting transfer in 2017, Barca began a run of panic-spending, as much to keep Messi satisfied as to actually win games. They accomplished the former to some degree, but they stopped doing as much of the latter.

As Simon Kuper put it in his book “The Barcelona Complex,” relaying a conversation with an unnamed club staffer:

“When Messi lost a battle, the staffer said, he would remain silent but would metaphorically ‘write it down in his notebook.’ […] Messi wasn’t like Cruyff. He didn’t particularly want power. He sometimes felt blamed for every problem at Barca. He would have preferred that the directors and coaches handled everything — but only as long as they surrounded him with exactly the players he wanted.”

Barca spent a combined €390 million on Philippe Coutinho, Ousmane Dembélé and Antoine Griezmann from 2017-19, and none of them could either work well with Messi (Coutinho, Griezmann) or stay on the pitch (Dembélé).

The true slide began in 2019-20. They won no trophies, produced their lowest LaLiga point total in 12 seasons — which coincided with Messi’s lowest goal total in 12 seasons — and finished their COVID-delayed campaign getting thrashed 8-2 by eventual champions Bayern Munich (and Coutinho) in the Champions League quarterfinals.

14. 2020-21 | Barcelona

Club stats: 47 appearances, 4,192 minutes, 38 goals, 12 assists
Trophies: Copa América, Copa del Rey
International stats: 13 appearances, 1,170 minutes, 6 goals, 5 assists
Ballon d’Or finish: First

Messi’s last season with Barca produced relative improvement. He scored seven more goals than in the previous season (albeit with half the assists), and Barca won the Copa del Rey with a semifinal comeback against Sevilla and a 4-0 thumping of Athletic Club in the final. But they lost both of their matches with Real Madrid and bowed out of the Champions League with a meek round-of-16 loss to PSG.

The saving grace? The only reason this season ranks ahead of the previous two on the list? Messi’s long-awaited international breakthrough at the Copa América in 2021.

Messi tied for the lead in goals, and he was able to lean on his teammates as Argentina won a semifinal penalty shootout with Colombia, then beat Brazil on their home turf in the final. After so many ups and downs with his national team, Messi finally had an international trophy, and Argentina had its first major trophy in 28 years.

13. 2023-24 | Inter Miami

Club stats: 35 appearances, 2,739 minutes, 30 goals, 22 assists
Trophies: Copa América, Leagues Cup (2023), Supporters’ Shield (2024)
International stats: 13 appearances, 1,021 minutes, 9 goals, 4 assists
Ballon d’Or finish: N/A

We’re manipulating time a bit with this entry thanks to Major League Soccer’s refusal to play on European soccer’s timeline. Messi made his Inter Miami debut in late July 2023, and the 2024 regular season is now wrapping up nearly 15 months later; thanks to injuries and general age-related absences, he has played 35 matches in an MLS shirt, and you know what? That’s about a season’s worth of matches! So we’re counting it all as 2023-24.

On a per-90-minute basis, Messi playing in MLS has gone about as you might have expected. He has averaged 0.72 assists per 90, topping even the pace he set while creating 30 assists for Barca in 2011-12, and his 0.99 goals per 90 average is his best in five years. The magic began almost immediately, as he scored a game-tying stoppage-time goal in his debut.

LIONEL ANDRÉS MESSI IS NOT HUMAN. pic.twitter.com/2mBDI41mLy

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 22, 2023

It has continued deep into the 2024 campaign.

Both the stakes and competition are lower, of course, but combined with another Copa América win — this time with him on the sideline for much of the final — it has still been a season of accomplishments.

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III. Otherworldly by anyone else’s standards

12. 2017-18 | Barcelona

Club stats: 54 appearances, 4,471 minutes, 45 goals, 18 assists
Trophies: LaLiga, Copa del Rey
International stats: 10 appearances, 900 minutes, 7 goals, 3 assists
Ballon d’Or finish: Fifth

Only by Messi’s standards could the 2017-18 season have seemed like a substandard year. Barca lost only one league match while cruising to a 14-point victory over Atlético Madrid, won the Copa del Rey final 5-0 over Sevilla and reached the Champions League quarterfinals in Andres Iniesta’s final season with the club.

Messi, meanwhile, produced more than 60 combined goals and assists for the fourth straight year. But they collapsed against AS Roma in the Champions League quarterfinals, and after briefly retiring from international football, Messi couldn’t inspire Argentina to a strong finish in his return. They lost to eventual champions France in the round of 16 at the World Cup in Russia.

11. 2013-14 | Barcelona

Club stats: 46 appearances, 3,743 minutes, 41 goals, 14 assists
Trophies: Spanish Supercopa
International stats: 11 appearances, 996 minutes, 7 goals, 2 assists
Ballon d’Or finish: Second

Like 2017-18, this was a good-by-anyone-else’s-standards club season. Messi scored more than 40 goals again, the club signed Neymar, won the Supercopa at the start of the season, finished with 87 points and reached the Copa del Rey final. But Atlético Madrid almost single-handedly wrecked their plans, beating them in the Champions League quarterfinals and, thanks to a 1-1 draw on the final day, in the LaLiga table. Throw in a Copa del Rey loss to Real Madrid — and Real Madrid’s first Champions League title in 12 years — and you have frustration.

The season was almost saved in the summer when Messi scored four goals and led Argentina to the World Cup final in Brazil. But the trophy remained elusive thanks to an extra-time loss to Germany.

10. 2016-17 | Barcelona

Club stats: 52 appearances, 4,452 minutes, 54 goals, 16 assists
Trophies: Copa del Rey, Spanish Supercopa
International stats: 5 appearances, 450 minutes, 3 goals, 2 assists
Ballon d’Or finish: Second

This season was … messy. Barca took a win and a draw from Real Madrid, but lost their LaLiga crown by three points because of random, wacky losses to also-rans. They unleashed their most famous comeback, from 4-0 down in the first leg to 6-5 ahead in the second against PSG in the Champions League round of 16, but they followed that with a limp defeat to Juventus in the next round. (Plus, the loss helped convince PSG to wreck the market forever with a €222m offer for Neymar the following offseason.) They still secured a couple of trophies, and Messi again managed 70 combined goals and assists, but the instability of the late-Messi era in Barcelona was creeping in.

Meanwhile, Messi un-retired from international play, got briefly suspended for four international matches for insulting officials, and barely actually played for Argentina. Just a weird year all around.

9. 2018-19 | Barcelona

Club stats: 50 appearances, 4,024 minutes, 51 goals, 19 assists
Trophies: LaLiga, Spanish Supercopa
International stats: 8 appearances, 622 minutes, 3 goals, 1 assist
Ballon d’Or finish: First

Into May, it looked like this season was setting up to be an all-timer. Having already clinched the LaLiga crown, Barca were well on their way toward another European treble: They were into the Copa del Rey final against Valencia, and they led Liverpool 3-0 after the first leg of the Champions League semis. Messi would end up with 70 combined goals and assists for the sixth time, too. Everything was right with the world … until Anfield. Liverpool won the second leg 4-0. A couple of weeks later, Valencia pulled a 2-1 upset too. Messi was as brilliant as ever, but this was another season defined by late heartbreak.

8. 2012-13 | Barcelona

Club stats: 50 appearances, 4,067 minutes, 60 goals, 15 assists
Trophies: LaLiga
International stats: 12 appearances, 941 minutes, 9 goals, 3 assists
Ballon d’Or finish: Second

In Tito Vilanova’s only season as Guardiola’s successor, Barca were as good as ever, winning 32 of 38 LaLiga matches and cruising to the title with 100 points. Their only loss in any competition in the first half of the season was to Celtic in the Champions League group stage. Coming off of his best-ever scoring campaign, Messi produced only 75 combined goals and assists, but he was still the scoring leader in both Spain and Europe. This was an extension of Guardiola’s golden era, but it was soured slightly by a blowout loss to Bayern in the Champions League semis and a Copa del Rey loss to Real Madrid.

7. 2015-16 | Barcelona

Club stats: 49 appearances, 4,229 minutes, 41 goals, 23 assists
Trophies: LaLiga, FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, Copa del Rey
International stats: 10 appearances, 733 minutes, 9 goals, 4 assists
Ballon d’Or finish: Second

A hangover was inevitable for Barca in 2015-16 following the all-time brilliance of the 2014-15 team, but this was still an awfully good group. They completed the set from the season before — after winning the 2014-15 Champions League, they swept the UEFA Super Cup (in extra time over Sevilla) and Club World Cup (over River Plate) — and after a bumpy start they ripped off a 39-match unbeaten streak.

Messi’s goal pace went down, partially because Luis Suárez was enjoying an all-time season of his own, but a dismal April stretch nearly wrecked everything: They won just once in six games, falling again to Atlético Madrid in the Champions League and watching a 12-point LaLiga lead over Real Madrid get cut to just one.

Barca rallied, though. They had to watch Real Madrid win a second Champions League title in three years, but they outscored their last five league opponents by a combined 24-0 to win the title by a point over Real Madrid and by three over Atlético. They scored twice in extra time to win the Copa del Rey over Sevilla as well. Season: saved. Only the Champions League loss — and, for Messi, a heartbreaking shootout loss to Chile in the Copa América Centenario final — marred perfection.

6. 2009-10 | Barcelona

Club stats: 53 appearances, 4,406 minutes, 47 goals, 11 assists
Trophies: LaLiga, FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, Spanish Supercopa
International stats: 11 appearances, 979 minutes, 1 goal, 1 assist
Ballon d’Or finish: First

After Messi’s first true breakthrough season at Barca in 2008-09, the club spent most of this season still in fifth gear. They lost only one league match and, with 99 points, held off Cristiano Ronaldo’s first Real Madrid team (96) in one of the all-time great league races. They completed the set from the previous season, winning the UEFA Super Cup over Shakhtar Donetsk and the Club World Cup over Estudiantes de La Plata.

They topped Jose Mourinho’s Inter in Champions League group play, as well, and casually cruised past VfB Stuttgart and Arsenal into the semifinals. And after sharing the goal-scoring spoils with Henry and Samuel Eto’o in 2008-09, Messi went to a new place with 47 goals in all competitions alongside Pedro and a not-particularly-satisfied Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

This was shaping up to be another perfect season until a Champions League semifinal rematch with Mourinho and Inter. Barca lost 3-1 at the San Siro, and despite having a 20-shot-to-1 advantage in the return leg, they could only win 1-0. They failed to defend their biggest crown. And soon enough, they would have a lot more of Mourinho to deal with.

5. 2022-23 | Paris Saint-Germain

Club stats: 41 appearances, 3,630 minutes, 21 goals, 20 assists
Trophies: FIFA World Cup, Ligue 1, Trophee des Champions
International stats: 13 appearances, 1,173 minutes, 17 goals, 5 assists
Ballon d’Or finish: First

Messi’s second season with PSG was a lot like his first: successful and forgettable. Messi was again more of a facilitator for Mbappé (and, when healthy, Neymar), and PSG held off Lens for another Ligue 1 crown. They failed early in the Champions League knockouts again — this time against Bayern in the round of 16 — but look, you know why this season ranks this highly.

Win a World Cup, years after you appeared to have given up hope for international accomplishments, and your season will surge up this list.

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IV. Perfection

4. 2008-09 | Barcelona

Club stats: 51 appearances, 3,902 minutes, 38 goals, 17 assists
Trophies: UEFA Champions League, LaLiga, Copa del Rey
International stats: 9 appearances, 808 minutes, 3 goals, 2 assists
Ballon d’Or finish: First

The first big breakthrough is always remembered with particular fondness. In retrospect, eight Messi-Barca teams produced more LaLiga points, and Messi would go on to top his 38 goals in all club competitions for each of the next 10 years. And while this team won the Champions League, it was a run with more drama than dominance — they drew in four of their six knockout-round matches before the final and needed a famous, baby-making Iniesta goal (assisted by Messi) to reach the final.

Still, this was indeed the breakthrough season. Messi had produced 42 goals and 19 assists through parts of four seasons, but he nearly matched that in 2008-09, his first under Guardiola. He won his first Ballon d’Or in the months that followed this campaign, and Guardiola had an intriguing set of personnel — Henry and Eto’o up front with Messi; Xavi, Iniesta, Touré and a 20-year old Sergio Busquets in midfield; Abidal, Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique and Dani Alves in the back — for deploying all the ideas that came streaming out of his head.

And one of those ideas helped to change the sport and produce maybe the most perfect performance in Barcelona history: In early May against Real Madrid, Guardiola deployed Messi as a “false nine,” having him drop into the midfield to get more involved in buildup, then charge toward a discombobulated back line over and over.

In his book “Fear and Loathing in La Liga,” ESPN’s Sid Lowe wrote:

“Madrid had been obliterated, eclipsed. Six trophies out of six in 2009, although [club president Joan] Laporta insisted that it was seven: the 6-2 at the Bernabeu was another. It was even better than a trophy, according to Iniesta: ‘Titles can be won again, cups can be lifted again. But I don’t think we’ll ever see six goals scored in the Bernabeu again. I’ll be able to tell my grandchildren that I experienced the best Clasico in the history of football.'”

They were only getting started.

3. 2010-11 | Barcelona

Club stats: 55 appearances, 4,574 minutes, 53 goals, 23 assists
Trophies: UEFA Champions League, LaLiga, Spanish Supercopa
International stats: 11 appearances, 986 minutes, 4 goals, 6 assists
Ballon d’Or finish: First

After the lingering disappointment of 2009-10, Barcelona charged all the way back to nearly sweep everything once again. After an early loss to Hercules, they wouldn’t lose again in league play until late April against Real Sociedad. And after they trounced Manchester United in the Champions League final for the second time in three years, United’s manager Sir Alex Ferguson said, “In my time as manager, it’s the best team I’ve faced.” Messi set a new career record with 53 total goals, new addition David Villa added 23, and the first Clasico pitting Guardiola against Mourinho was terribly one-sided: 5-0 in Barca’s favor.

Of course, what defined this season the most — and spawned a thousand books — was the run of four

2. 2011-12 | Barcelona

Club stats: 60 appearances, 5,221 minutes, 73 goals, 30 assists
Trophies: FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, Copa del Rey, Spanish Supercopa
International stats: 9 appearances, 810 minutes, 9 goals, 4 assists
Ballon d’Or finish: First

Let’s put team success to the side for the moment. Granted, the 2011-12 Blaugrana had plenty of that, again following the previous season’s Champions League victory with wins in the UEFA Super Cup (2-0 over Porto) and FIFA Club World Cup (4-0 over Santos). They defeated Real Madrid in a wild Supercopa de España to start the season, rolled to the Copa del Rey title, reached the Champions League semifinals for the fourth straight year and posted 91 points in league play, which would win LaLiga as often as not. According to the ratings at ClubElo.com, Barca’s all-time ratings peak came in April 2012. Even while missing Villa to a months-long injury, this team was absurdly good.

Mourinho’s Real Madrid posted 100 points in league play, however, and Chelsea, on their way to a sixth-place Premier League finish under caretaker manager Roberto Di Matteo, pulled a shocking upset (with help from a missed Messi penalty) in the Champions League semis on their way to winning their first-ever title. Guardiola, burned-out after four seasons in charge, would step aside at the end of the season, and while his last match was a 3-0 thumping of Athletic Club in the Copa del Rey final, the season was less than perfect.

Why is it No. 2, then? Because look at Messi’s stats again! Even on this long list of obnoxious statistical achievements — he had at least 40 combined goals and assists in club play 15 times! His 2011-12 campaign stands out. He scored at least two goals in a match 22 times, and in LaLiga play he scored four more goals than Ronaldo and more than twice as many as anyone else. He was one assist away from leading the league in that, too! You can’t write about this season without italics and exclamation marks!

From a scoring standpoint, things reached a head in late winter. From Feb. 19, in a 5-1 win over Valencia, to March 20, a 5-3 win over Granada, Messi played in six matches and scored 16 goals! He scored an incredible five in a 7-1 Champions League win over Bayer Leverkusen.

There’s a rule in soccer analytics that if you attempt any sort of quality measure and Messi isn’t a clear and obvious standout, you probably did something wrong. More than anything else, this is the season people are thinking of when they say that.

1. 2014-15 | Barcelona

Club stats: 57 appearances, 5,061 minutes, 58 goals, 27 assists
Trophies: UEFA Champions League, LaLiga, Copa del Rey
International stats: 10 appearances, 825 minutes, 4 goals, 4 assists
Ballon d’Or finish: First

It turned out to be the beginning of the end of major success at Barcelona, but in Luis Enrique’s first season in charge, Barca added Suárez to an attack that already featured Messi and Neymar, and with all the old Barca stalwarts — Busquets, Iniesta and, for the last time, Xavi in midfield. You also had Alves and Jordi Alba at full-back; Pique and Javier Mascherano at center-back — setting them up, the result was soccer perfection. They scored 110 goals in league play, which was about normal for the time, but their possession play was so perfect (69.4% possession) that opponents only got enough opportunities to score just 21 goals, tied for the fewest of the Messi era.