Lionel Messi? He could be the best left-back if he wanted to, but sometimes he wasn’t the best captain, says the Barcelona legend. Why?

Lionel Messi and the captain? It’s a tradition today, but it wasn’t always so. Especially in Barcelona. In the Catalan big club, he only became one in 2018 after the departure of Andrés Iniesta. Sometimes, though, he has reportedly not been the best captain. Why? That’s what his former teammate Ivan Rakitic explains.

The holder of a record eight Ballon d’Or for the best player on the planet has been at Inter Miami since the summer. Although he left Europe, he still fills the pages of the European media. No wonder, after all. He is arguably the best footballer in history, still performing magical moments.

He doesn’t appear in the media very often. He is more often talked about by others. For example, his former Barcelona teammate Ivan Rakitic, who was at the Camp Nou from 2014 to 2020, recently did so, winning 13 trophies.

Lionel Messi celebrated with the Croatian midfielder, for example, winning the Champions League, the Club World Cup title and four league titles. They have been through a lot together. Besides, Rakitic had the privilege of getting to know the Argentine as captain.

However, the 2022 world champion was not Barcelona’s captain for very long. He only officially became one in 2018. He took over the armband after the departure of Andrés Iniesta. Sometimes, though, he was reportedly not the best captain.

Why hasn’t Lionel Messi been the best captain?

“Lionel Messi is the best player in history. If he put his mind to it and if he wanted to, he could be the best left-back in the world,” Ivan Rakitic told Diario AS.

He did see some of the blemishes on his captaincy though. He has sympathy for it, though. “Sometimes he wasn’t exactly the best captain to tell you what to do. But it was because he was too special and different,” explains the Croatian midfielder.

The fact is that leadership, or rather the lack of it, has long been blamed on the Argentine idol. But everything has changed in recent years. Lionel Messi has worked on it and at the World Cup in Qatar he was the captain who literally carried Argentina on his shoulders.

Now the Argentine is the captain of Inter Miami. Rakitic, for a change, plays in Saudi Arabia, where he is with Al-Shabab.

Source: Diario AS