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Topics: Lionel Messi, Barcelona, Argentina, Inter Miami, Paris Saint-Germain
Lionel Messi has previously named the 10 players he enjoyed playing alongside most during spells at Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Miami and the Argentina national team.
Since making his professional debut for Barcelona in 2004, the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner has played with some of the all-time greats.
At the Camp Nou, Messi shared the pitch with a plethora of world class talent – including Xavi, Carles Puyol and Andres Iniesta – as they lifted four Champions League titles during his 17-year stay in the first-team.
In fact, all 10 players he enjoyed playing alongside most played for Barcelona, with two of his current teammates at Inter Miami being named during an interview with Chinese outlet Titan Sports.
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"I was lucky to play for a long time at Barcelona... with many of the best players," Messi said in 2023.
"Like Ronaldinho, Deco, [Samuel] Eto'o, [Luis] Suarez, Xavi, [Andres] Iniesta, [Sergio] Busquets, I was lucky enough to play with the best players and enjoy the game with them."
After a brief pause, Messi then brought up one of his most talented teammates at club level. He said: “Speaking of which, I almost forgot about Neymar because there are so many people."
Moments later and the World Cup winner brought up four other former Barcelona teammates.
"There must be many players I forgot to mention,” Messi added. “I've been lucky enough to play with the best players, with the best strikers, like Neymar, [Samuel] Eto'o, [Luis] Suarez, [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic and [David] Villa and many more.
"I've been comfortable playing with all of them, or almost all of them, because I've been lucky enough to play with the best of them... playing with them is easy.”
Back in 2023, Lionel Messi named Kylian Mbappe in his 'dream XI' of former teammates that featured Ronaldinho, Dani Alves and Luis Suarez.
The Argentine picked Marc-Andre ter Stegen as his goalkeeper ahead of Victor Valdes and Gianluigi Donnarumma before selecting Dani Alves, Jordi Alba, Carles Puyol and Javier Mascherano as his back four.
Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta were picked to play in midfield alongside the ever-entertaining Ronaldinho, who memorably assisted Messi when he scored his first goal for the club on May 1, 2005 against Albacete.
Neymar and Luis Suarez, two players that flourished alongside Messi, were two of the most unsurprising picks alongside Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe, the only non-Barcelona player to feature.
