Thank you, Messi, for making us Barca fans believe we belonged at the very top with the biggest clubs in Europe. Your greatness made us feared by everyone, and now that you’re gone, we’re struggling to live up to the standards you set.
You made winning the Champions League feel like something we should expect every year, when in reality, it’s a trophy most clubs can only dream of winning once in a blue moon.
You set the bar so high that anything less than winning everything now feels like failure. You made us forget how difficult it actually is to dominate Europe.
The sad reality is that we got so used to your greatness that we started believing it was normal. We weren’t just watching Barcelona dominate football; we were watching one of the greatest players in history make the impossible look easy.
Now we’re realising just how special those years really were.
This isn’t a dig at Messi. If anything, it’s a reminder of just how much he did for this club.