On this day: The greatest player of all-time scored his first Barcelona goal 14 years ago today

14 years ago today, one of the greatest, if not the greatest footballers of all time, scored his first goal in the famous colours of Barcelona.

Lionel Messi came on for Samuel Eto'o against Albacete, and soon after coming on, he found the back of the net with a delightful chip over the goalkeeper, after one of his idols, Ronaldinho, put him through on goal.

This goal meant that at the time, Messi became the youngest-ever-scorer in the club's history, a record that would eventually be surpassed by Bojan Krkic, yet the Spaniard has clearly failed to reach the heights that the little Argentine has.

One could say that this was the moment that Ronaldinho truly guided Lionel Messi to his incredible rise, with the Brazilian being crowned the Ballon d'Or winner in 2005, an award that Messi would eventually win in 2009, and then winning it four more times in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2015.

Ronaldinho had openly expressed the fact that the Argentine would go on to surpass his ability, telling the other Barcelona players that during Messi's first first-team training session with the club, a year before Messi made his league debut.

Since that goal, Messi has gone on to score 597 more for the club, in just 682 appearances, whilst also scoring 65 goals in 129 caps for Argentina. In the process, he has won 10 La Liga titles, 6 Copa del Rey titles, 7 Spanish Super Cups, 4 UEFA Champions League titles, 3 UEFA Super Cups, and 3 FIFA Club World Cups.

This season, he has recorded his lowest amount of appearances since 2008/09, yet he has still managed to outscore everyone in Europe, scoring 46 goals in 45 appearances in all competitions, a true freak of nature.