Lionel Messi has been with Barcelona since 2001 but for a while he didn't play with the Blaugrana on FIFA according to Pablo Zabaleta.
The two Argentines both lived in Barcelona at the same time when Zabaleta was playing at Catalan rivals Espanyol, prior to making his name as a fan favourite at Manchester City.
And they would regularly lock horns on the PlayStation as well as on derby days - with Zabaleta saying he would get the better of the five-time Ballon d'Or, who played with Chelsea as his go-to team.
"I was better at PlayStation than Messi," Zabaleta told the BBC, who he has been providing punditry for in Russia throughout the World Cup.
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"He used to play with Chelsea a lot. I used to live in Barcelona city and he was living 30 minutes outside. We were playing on the internet."
Messi might have had some fun playing with Chelsea on FIFA, but he struggled against the time for a very long time - failing to score against them in 730 minutes of Champions League action in fact.
However, he did break the duck in stunning fashion in their last 16 encounter last season, netting the equaliser in a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge before bagging a brace in a 3-0 win at the Nou Camp to comfortably secure Barca's passage into the next round.
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Messi got off the mark in this year's World Cup with a glorious goal in the massive 2-1 win over Nigeria, ending 622 minutes of World Cup football without a goal and becoming the first player to score a World Cup goal in his teens, 20s and 30s.
After Marcos Rojo's dramatic late winner took Jorge Sampaoli's side into the next round, Argentina will take on France in Kazan tomorrow.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Football News, Chelsea, FC Barcelona, FIFA, Lionel Messi, EA Sports, Argentina
