Messi breaks Xavi's Barcelona appearance record despite wanting to leave

Lionel Messi will break Xavi Hernández's appearance record this weekend against Real Sociedad, reaching his 768th match in a Barcelona shirt. The milestone arrives under circumstances neither man could have predicted a year earlier: Messi had decided to leave the club, convinced the team could not compete for Europe's biggest prize. He was 37 matches short of Xavi's mark and did not care.

The story begins in August 2020, after Barcelona's humiliating 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarterfinals. Messi had played 731 matches for the club by then. He sent a burofax to the board announcing his intention to depart, triggering a public confrontation with president Josep Maria Bartomeu. The Argentine wanted a winning project in Europe, something the struggling 2020-21 squad could not offer. But contractual complications forced him to stay another season. Now, with new president Joan Laporta actively courting him to renew his contract before it expires in June, Messi finds himself on the verge of a record he once seemed willing to abandon.

Xavi, now managing Al-Sadd in Qatar, responded with grace when Messi equaled his mark against Huesca. "Congratulations, Leo," he posted on Instagram. "It's an honor that you're the one to match this record." In an interview with Mundo Deportivo, Xavi acknowledged that had Messi stayed at Barcelona, the record would have been his by a comfortable margin. "He's still young and could play much longer," Xavi said. Messi has also matched Xavi's tenure at the club—17 seasons—a distinction shared only with Charly Rexach, the former player and coach who brought Messi to Barcelona as a teenager.

Rexach, now in his eighties, marveled at Messi's durability and the public's endless appetite for his performances. "What surprises me about Leo is that he never tires, and people never tire of him," Rexach said. He recalled watching Messi execute the same move hundreds of times—cutting in from the right wing and shooting near post—without either the player or the fans losing interest. "I have no merit in bringing him here," Rexach added. "It was obvious. Even someone who knows nothing about football could see he was the best."

Beyond appearances, Messi's dominance across Barcelona's record books is nearly total. He has scored 661 goals for the club, nearly triple the second-place finisher, César Rodríguez, who managed 230. He holds 34 titles, more than any other player in the club's history—Andrés Iniesta, his longtime teammate, is second with 32. Iniesta called Messi "different, unreachable, incomparable." Ronald Koeman, Barcelona's current manager, once held the record for direct free-kick goals at the club with 25; Messi surpassed that mark in 2016 and now has 46. Koeman acknowledged the gap between them with humor: "I'm not going to shoot more free kicks. In my day I made them count, like Leo does now. You can't compare us. He's left-footed, I'm right-footed. We've both scored important goals from set pieces. I hope he keeps scoring more."

Messi's early years at Barcelona were marked by struggle. He missed chances and lacked confidence in front of goal. Samuel Eto'o, his Cameroonian teammate who scored 131 goals in blue and garnet, encouraged him to persist. "The day you start scoring, you're going to be..." Eto'o told him. Eventually Messi broke through, and the goals came in torrents.

One record remains beyond his reach: the most Champions League titles won as a Barcelona player. Messi has four, matching Xavi and Iniesta. Barcelona was eliminated by Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16 this season, so a fifth European crown will require him to stay and sign a new contract. Laporta has made his pitch directly. "You can't leave, Leo," the president told him at his inauguration ceremony. "If the stadium were full, you wouldn't go. Even the pandemic is making things difficult for us. Whatever you decide will be right. But we'll try to convince you." Messi smiled. The Barcelona faithful are singing an old Argentine chant: "Don't go, champion. I want to see you again."