Robert Lewandowski expected Barcelona "would not win everything" in his first season as he called for patience with the rebuild at Camp Nou.
Xavi's side head into the World Cup break two points clear of Real Madrid at the LaLiga summit but crashed out of the Champions League in the group stages for the second season in a row.
Having brought in the likes of Lewandowski, Raphinha and Jules Kounde alongside a host of high-profile free transfers, their European failures have placed some scrutiny on Blaugrana coach Xavi.
But Lewandowski suggested it was always going to take time for Barca to regain their Spanish and European dominance, owing to the transformative period the Blaugrana are going through.
"I knew that in my first season at Barcelona, we were not going to win everything," he told Marca. "This team is still being rebuilt, and it needs time, this is part of the process.
"We should be playing the next round of the Champions League, but we have learnt a lot, especially because we have a lot of young players.
"We made a few mistakes and at this level, you must always be ready. It doesn't matter how you do it, you need to learn how to win."
Despite falling out of the Champions League, Lewandowski says the marked improvements with Xavi's side are already noticeable.
"I think that even in a few months, you can see the progress we've made at Barcelona," he continued. "At the beginning of next year, we can show our better performances, and we can grow up as a team.
"Even next season will be much better, and we'll have more stability. In football, you can win a lot in a short amount of time. We've had a lot of injuries and as a result we lost a lot of stability.
"In that sense, we haven't had much luck. In just a few weeks we lost a lot of players. Then, when you consider we also had to play a new system with a new set of players, it made things even more difficult.
"But now we've learnt from this and now we can move forward."
The 33-year-old scored 50 goals across all competitions last season, the most across Europe's top five leagues, as Bayern Munich lifted their 10th Bundesliga title in a row.
Lewandowski also broke Gerd Muller's long-standing Bundesliga record by scoring 41 goals in a single season in the 2020-21 campaign, while his 43 league goals in 2021 serve as the record for a calendar year in Germany's top tier.
Having accumulated 344 goals and 57 assists across 375 appearances in all competitions for Bayern, Lewandowski says he left Julian Nagelsmann's side as he needed a new challenge.
"It was a very tough decision but I knew it was the right moment for me to leave. At Bayern, I had everything under control and I was in my comfort zone," he added.
"But, in my head, I knew it was my team to leave, I wanted to play a long career and continue to be happy.
"When I started to talk to Barca, I knew for my personal and footballing life, the best decision was to move to Barcelona to play in LaLiga. It was always my dream to play in La Liga.
"Also, I didn't want to play my entire life just in one league and that was another reason, even after I won everything at Bayern.
"I will always be proud and grateful for that, but my head was clear, and I wanted to move on to Barcelona. I have a new happiness now."
Rumour Has It: Bayern Munich turning to Tuchel
Bayern Munich have sensationally sacked Julian Nagelsmann, and Thomas Tuchel is in line to take over.
While not officially confirmed by the German club, widespread reports on Thursday suggested Nagelsmann had been dismissed.
Bayern sit second in the Bundesliga, one point behind Borussia Dortmund, and it is one of their rivals' former coaches who is favourite to replace Nagelsmann.
TOP STORY – TUCHEL SIGNS BAYERN DEAL
According to Fabrizio Romano, Tuchel – who was sacked by Chelsea in September – has already agreed to become Bayern's new coach.
Tuchel's first game would be against his former team Dortmund on April 1.
Bayern face Manchester City in the Champions League quarter-finals. Nagelsmann, meanwhile, is sure to be linked with plenty of high-profile job opportunities.
ROUND UP
- The Sun, citing a Sport Bild report, claim that Eintracht Frankfurt have placed an £88million (€99.7m) price tag on Manchester United target Randal Kolo Muani.
- The father of Brighton and Hove Albion's Alexis Mac Allister has informed ESPN no clubs are in concrete talks with his son, but that there are interested parties.
- According to 90min, Chelsea, Newcastle United and Manchester City are all scouting Juventus winger Samuel Iling-Junior.
- Fabrizio Romano says that Barcelona, Real Madrid and Liverpool are interested in Florian Wirtz, though Bayer Leverkusen are confident of keeping hold of the youngster.
Messi scores 800th career goal – Opta numbers behind the GOAT's latest landmark
Another week, another landmark for Lionel Messi as the Argentina superstar scored his 800th career goal in Thursday's friendly against Panama.
It's been an almighty journey for the all-time great, who has basically won everything on offer and claimed a record haul of seven Ballons d'Or along the way.
The player regarded by many as the greatest ever, Messi reached his latest milestone with a picture-perfect free kick in the 89th minute against Panama, curling one into the top corner after crashing two prior free kicks into the crossbar.
Although Messi hits new landmarks so frequently, at the age of 35 he is approaching a point where such achievements will become a little rarer.
With that in mind, it's worth celebrating Messi and his feats while we still can – therefore, Stats Perform has delved into the Opta data behind his latest accomplishment.
On the receiving end
It's nearly 18 years since Messi's first goal in professional football. Then a floppy-haired 17-year-old, he latched on to a Ronaldinho pass before lifting a clever lob over Albacete goalkeeper Raul Valbuena on May 1, 2005.
That goal has since become famous given its significance in marking the arrival of Messi – it also left a mark on the career of Valbuena.
"The press calls me every time he's broken a record or achieved something important, especially press from Catalonia," he told Marca nine years later. "To me, it's a funny anecdote in my career as a goalkeeper."
Well, it's all right for some. Many goalkeepers have had to contend with Messi smashing past them a few more times than Valbuena's single concession.
In total, 232 goalkeepers had let in a goal against Messi before Thursday. No one conceded more than Diego Alves, however, with the Brazilian beaten 21 times. Iker Casillas is a close second (19).
Returning the favour
Of course, over his career Messi has also become synonymous with creativity, routinely setting up goals for his team-mates.
But, given how many he's scored, he's also had to benefit from plenty of service from his colleagues as well – when he's not doing it all himself.
There are several players with whom he's struck up particularly effective on-pitch relationships.
For years, his combination with Dani Alves was unrivalled, the Brazilian setting up 42 of Messi's goals, but then along came Luis Suarez.
Suarez, Messi and Neymar were a revered and feared front three, their understanding on the pitch so deadly. The Uruguayan ended up assisting 47 goals for Messi across their six years together, with no one else teeing him up more often.
Messi also has his favourite clubs to score against. Impressively, Real Madrid (26) are right up there – but there are four teams he has punished more.
Athletic Bilbao (29), Valencia (31) and Atletico Madrid (32) all struggled against him, but if there has been one team who have resembled lambs to the slaughter when facing Messi, it's Sevilla (38).
Heights few have reached
The world of football numbers can be a little muddy. What constitutes an official goal? What's an official competition?
As such, there has been lots of confusion regarding the 'official' goals hauls of players down the years – we're looking at you, Pele and Romario.
The International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) considers Cristiano Ronaldo to be the world record holder, stating in December 2021 that the Portugal forward was the first player to reach 800 official career goals.
This makes Messi the second to reach that figure, with Opta corroborating his career record. There remains a possibility he will eventually reach 1,000. No one is expecting him to get there soon, though.
After all, as good as he remains, achievements like scoring 91 times in a calendar year – as he managed in 2012 – appear to be beyond him these days.
That was his best ever year, which – perhaps unsurprisingly – coincided with his most prolific season (2011-12), when he scored 82 goals.
Still, the 35 goals he plundered in 2022 wasn't a bad return, especially given that haul included seven en route to World Cup success with Argentina.
Still to come?
There aren't many records at Barcelona that don't already belong to Messi. Top scorer? Done. Most appearances? Completed it. The most-photographed person at Camp Nou? Probably.
It seems unlikely Messi will be around at PSG long enough to have the same kind of impact there, but he certainly still has career targets in sight.
There's the aforementioned 1,000 goals landmark, though before then he will have his eyes on more international achievements.
Messi's free kick to seal Thursday's 2-0 win left him just one from reaching 100 with Argentina, and after that he'll perhaps have designs on usurping both Ali Daei (109) and Ronaldo (120), the two highest-scoring players in men's international football.
Similarly, with Ronaldo now out of the way in Saudi Arabia, Messi could also take his record for the most Champions League goals (140) – Messi is on 129.
But regardless of what else he does or doesn't go on to achieve, Thursday's milestone is just another reminder of how fortunate we've been to witness Messi's truly remarkable career.
Messi scores 800th career goal on Argentina's return to action
Lionel Messi reached the latest major milestone of his storied career on Thursday as he moved on to 800 goals with a stunning free kick for to seal Argentina's 2-0 friendly win against Panama on Thursday.
The reigning World Cup champions returned to Buenos Aires where they received a thunderous reception from their loyal supporters, but they would have to wait until the final moments for their favourite son to get on the scoresheet.
Messi had hit the crossbar with a free kick in the first half, and after a second free kick was saved by inspired Panama goalkeeper Jose Guerra, he struck the woodwork again with a third free kick, although this one led to the opening goal as Thiago Almada tapped in the rebound.
But his fourth free kick finally curled under the bar and into the top-right corner, sending the stadium into raptures.
Of course, it was not so long ago that Messi hit another goals landmark.
His tap-in from Kylian Mbappe's inch-perfect cross against Marseille on February 26 was the 700th club goal of Messi's career – the strike against Panama was only his second for club or country since then.
Messi's stunner at El Monumental on Thursday was his 99th on the international stage.
Only his old nemesis Cristiano Ronaldo (120) and Iran legend Ali Daei (109) have scored more goals in international men's football than Messi, who looks set to continue playing for Argentina for a little while yet.
As such, his 100th goal for the Albiceleste is seemingly just around the corner.
But much like with that international milestone, Messi is not the first player to reach 800 across a full career.
Data can get a little murkier when you go deep into the past, with historical inconsistencies making it a little tricky to classify "official goals" or "official competitions".
The likes of Brazilian greats Romario and Pele are among a group of players deemed by some to have scored over 1,000 goals over their careers, but many of those were netted in friendlies or "unofficial" games.
The International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) considered Cristiano Ronaldo to be the first player to ever reach 800 official goals in December 2021.
With that in mind, Thursday's goal makes Messi the second to reach the landmark, and he is still going strong.
He has scored 18 for the season (all competitions) with PSG, though he also netted seven in as many games at Qatar 2022 as Argentina won the World Cup.
Of course, the vast majority of his 800 goals have been scored in the colours of Barcelona.
During 17 years with Barca's first team, Messi scored 672 times. That is 440 more than any other player in the club's history, while he also holds their record for most appearances (778).
And with his future at PSG in doubt, he could yet extend those records at Camp Nou.
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