Would Lionel Messi be a success at Manchester City?

Undoubtedly the most incredible transfer story of this transfer window is that  Lionel Messi could be leaving his beloved Barcelona for the north of England, to team up with his friend and former coach Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. It would be remarkable move for the 33 year-old, who has been at Barcelona his entire career.

With the giants of Catalonia, Messi has won 10 La Liga titles since 2004, has won four Uefa Champions Leagues, and has on six occasions won Fifa’ Ballon D’Or, given to the world’s best footballer in any given year.

Adored in Barcelona, one of the most passionate footballing cities in the world, there would likely be a swathe of protests around the Nou Camp if Messi were allowed to leave, and a deal is by no means a certainty, with Barcelona claiming that their star player has a 700 million euro release clause in his contract that any team wanting his services would have to pay.

Messi and his team are arguing that he should be allowed to leave the club for free, and perhaps a compromise will be reached that will see him join City for less money. Manchester City are one of the richest clubs in the world, and it remains to be seen if paying 700 million euros is beyond them, especially as they have only just escaped a Uefa Champions League ban for breaching Uefa’s Financial Fair Play regulations.

But let’s say City do get their man, and Pep and Leo are reunited, what will the Argentinean superstar bring to Manchester, a pair of tired legs, or the same genius that has mesmerised La Liga for 16 years?

Messi has been an absolute phenomenon in Spain, scoring over 30 goals in all competitions in every season since 2008. His record is a ridculous 73 goals, back in the 2011/12 campaign, but as recently as 2018/19 he scored 51 times, not exactly giving a sign he was losing his spark into his 30s.

This season, he has racked up his lowest tally since the 2007/8 campaign, but has still scored 31 times in a season where his team have been generally awful, and in a season that has been severely disrupted by the Coronavirus pandemic.

If Pep Guardiola’s mission is to win the Uefa Champions League at City, Messi’s three goals in eight matches this season do give an indication that he might not be able to hold sway over the rest of the continent as he has previously. One has to go back to the 2006/7 season to find a worse record for Messi in Europe’s elite competition.

Then again, just a season earlier, Messi hit 12 goals in 10 Champions League games, equaling his second best tally ever in the competition. If a ‘blip’ in form is scoring 31 goals in all competitions, then it is hardly a blip at all.

Messi would no doubt improve any side he plays in and it is not just the goals, the Argentinean is an assist machine too, laying on goals for all his teammates. Even if Messi scored just 31 times this season in 44 matches, if you add in his 25 assists, still makes for an extraordinary effort.

Manchester City would be signing a superstar, a man reaching the end of a stellar career perhaps, but still an unparalleled superstar, who would be likely to take the English Premier League by storm.

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