As a Christmas treat to fans, a few days back FC Barcelona released footage of Lionel Messi in his junior days.
On the club's YouTube channel, Barca posted a 2 minute plus long clip of Messi toying, tormenting and terrorising defenders at various La Masia youth levels as he makes his way into the Barca first team and eventually reaches legendary status.
The video also features several interviews with a young Messi, who talks about his progress.
The montage has surpassed 1.7 million views and sees a whole lot of Messi magic.
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His long hairstyle and skinny frame is a stark contrast to the Messi we see in 2016, yet so many of the mazy runs and filthy finishes that are the bulk of the video are identical to the goodness Messi produces on a weekly basis.
In just a short compilation, you see several players try and harry and hack Messi down but his unparallelled strength and balance leads to him utterly ruining anyone who tries to take a ball off him.
It's too bad, he's just too good.
Watch Messi leaving defenders for dead, outfoxing opposition goalkeepers and generally just being an absolute magician in the following compilation:
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It's fair to say Messi's done alright for himself since then, isn't it?
Just the four Ballon d'Or trophies and over 500 club goals...
He's also the top scorer in 2016, with an incredible 51 goals.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: FC Barcelona, Lionel Messi