May 6, 2012.
Barcelona, Camp Nou Stadium.
In the 37th round of La Liga, Barcelona hosted a home match against Espanyol.
This match held special significance as it marked Barcelona's last home game of the season and served as a farewell tribute to their legendary coach, Guardiola.
A remarkable crowd of 97,000 spectators filled the massive Camp Nou Stadium to its capacity, reflecting the immense enthusiasm surrounding the event.
Although Espanyol was considered a weaker team, the fans' excitement remained unparalleled.
This game quickly transformed into a showcase of Messi's extraordinary talent!
With his exceptional breakthroughs and impeccable dribbling, Messi captivated the attention of the entire audience.
In the 11th minute, while dribbling the ball, Messi was fouled by an opponent in front of the penalty area, resulting in a free kick being awarded by the referee.
Messi seized the opportunity and scored directly from the free kick, giving Barcelona a 1-0 lead against Espanyol.
In the 64th minute, Messi displayed his skillful dribbling by maneuvering past defenders inside the penalty area. His quick turn caught Espanyol's tall defender Gomez off guard, leading to an unintentional handball by Gomez while attempting to tackle.
The nearby referee promptly spotted Gomez's handball foul, granting Barcelona a penalty kick and issuing a yellow card to Gomez.
Messi confidently stepped up to take the penalty, outwitted the goalkeeper with his finesse, and struck the ball against the post, which then rebounded into the net.
With this goal, the score on the field became 2-0, and Messi secured his second goal of the match.
Ten minutes later, Messi received a long pass from Adriano in the backfield, swiftly evaded the defenders of Espanyol, and went one-on-one with the goalkeeper, once again finding the back of the net to complete a hat-trick.
Five minutes later, Espanyol's number 22 defender fouled Busquets inside the penalty area, and Messi found himself standing on the penalty spot once again.
He didn't waste the opportunity created by his teammates and calmly converted the penalty, scoring his fourth goal of the match, achieving an incredible poker (four goals in a single game).
As Messi scored his third goal, sealing the victory, the Camp Nou stadium erupted in chants praising Messi.
When he scored his fourth goal, the entire crowd stood up, applauding and cheering for the king of Camp Nou!
Not only the regular fans, even the young players from Barcelona's youth team who came to watch the game were completely captivated by Messi!
"Messi! Messi! Oh my God, can you believe it? He's like a god!"
Among the youth team, Gerard Deulofeu, who also played as a winger, was so excited that he shook the shoulder of his young teammate sitting next to him and exclaimed.
Sitting next to him was a young player wearing the number 4 jersey of the youth team, with fair skin, blond hair, and a handsome young man.
His name is Lucas, sixteen years old this year, the main midfielder of Barcelona's youth team, and also a time traveler.
He was an orphan, adopted by a Spanish couple and grew up in Spain since childhood.
His adoptive father used to be a professional player, playing as a midfielder.
Influenced by him, Lucas started playing football at a young age. Because of his talent and his adoptive father's connections, he joined La Masia training camp early on and was nurtured as the successor to Xavi.
Hearing Deulofeu's words, Lucas nodded in agreement.
In 2012, Messi had arguably the most extraordinary year of his career.
During that period, Messi scored a remarkable total of 91 goals in all official competitions, surpassing Gerd Muller's world record.
At the time, Messi possessed exceptional speed, explosiveness, dribbling ability, passing skills, organizational skills, and seemed capable of virtually anything on the field.
He was an absolute nightmare for opposing defenders.
When Messi had the ball and advanced, there was hardly an effective way to stop him other than through fouls.
Regrettably, due to excessive fatigue from a demanding schedule and rough challenges from opponents,
Messi suffered multiple injuries in 2013, significantly impacting his form and preventing him from reaching his peak.
Since then, although Messi has remained formidable and even more versatile,
his ability to penetrate defenses has considerably declined compared to his prime.
But what does that have to do with me?
As a midfielder, it is only natural for me to study players like Xavi and Iniesta. Messi's extraordinary talent and his distinct position make it irrelevant for me to analyze him.
Lucas silently grumbled in his mind when a familiar voice suddenly echoed in his head:
[The system has detected a player who meets the criteria of a football king. Would you like to replicate him?]
Lucas was startled. Had this damn system come back to life?
When he was six years old, he accidentally acquired a football king system. Back then, the system only imparted some football knowledge and skills to him before vanishing.
Throughout these ten years, he had been searching for ways to awaken the system, but to no avail.
Just as he was about to give up and even started doubting whether he had truly obtained the system or if it was merely an illusion, this infuriating system resurrected itself.
This made Lucas feel both surprised and delighted. Although he had been criticizing the system as useless, he realized that without its help, he would never have been able to reach this point today.
So when he heard the system's reminder and worried that it might disappear again, he immediately made a decision: to proceed with the replication!
Boom! In an instant, countless fragments of memories surged into Lucas's mind, and scenes from the past appeared one after another.
All that appeared were scenes of a short player on the field, dribbling, surpassing opponents, and shooting.
"This is... memories of Messi's career?" Lucas immediately recognized the short player. It was none other than the king of Camp Nou, Lionel Messi, who was currently sprinting on the Camp Nou stadium.
The memories of Messi's career gradually merged with Lucas's own memories, giving him the experience of Messi's eight-year professional career.
[Memory reconstruction complete. Body reconstruction will take place tonight!]
The system's modifications were significant. Memory reconstruction was somewhat manageable as it was difficult for others to detect.
However, body reconstruction was a substantial transformation that would bring noticeable changes to the player's physique.
If it were completed on-site, not to mention others, his teammates around him would easily notice his changes.
Therefore, the system's arrangement was very thoughtful.
However, when Lucas heard that the system was going to undergo body reconstruction, he felt a little apprehensive.
Honestly, no one could resist Messi's talent.
He was a top-level talent on the level of a football king, and who wouldn't be envious?
But Messi was only 1.7 meters tall!
Many of his talents were exchanged for his height!
Does possessing Messi's talent mean that he would also be limited to 1.7 meters like Messi?