The big Lionel Messi quiz! 🧠 Think you know everything Messi? Prove it! | ESPN FC

Welcome to Messi Mastermind. I'm Luis Miguel Echegaray, joined by a cast of veritable Lionel, Andres and Messi Cuccittini experts to test their knowledge. First is ESPN's Barcelona correspondent tapped into everything at the Camp Nou during the ups and downs of Messi's career, Sam Marsden. Sam, how are you, buddy? Really nervous, yeah, seeing the panel we've got today. Don't be nervous, my friend, where you're amongst friends. Next is the writer of the 2013 football book of the year, Larsa, the making of the world's greatest team, a European football journalist, an absolute legend, Graham Hunter. How are you, buddy? Nice intro. Thank you. Messi ghosted it for me. I did nothing on the book. Messi was my ghost. So he's going to be right next to you when we do this quiz, I'm sure. Next, a writer, broadcaster, YouTuber who's interviewed Messi and has created so much content about him. I'd be shocked if he wasn't an expert. Rodri Faes. Rodri, how are you, man? Hey, how's it going? I'm good. I'm going to lose. First of all, I'm going to lose because I know that Graham is going to win the quiz. Don't worry about that. That's why I'm not nervous. I love it. Expect the lowest you can and then see what happens towards the end. I like the strategy. And finally, a man who has commented on so many of the great moments we're about to talk about. There is a video on YouTube that names both of the great men in its title. It's the voice of La Liga on ESPN. Rob Palmer. Rob, how are you, buddy? Not worthy of making this five-a-side team, I feel, at the moment. Since I've promoted everybody else, everybody, I will use the opportunity to promote my new book, Messi Mania, the ultimate story of the world's greatest available in Australia and New Zealand now and the rest of the world in March 2025. I want to add, by the way, that my producer, Tom Kingham, wrote that for me. I didn't hold him to a gun and said I have to talk about my book. I just want to make that very clear. But let's get going, everybody. Here is the format of the quiz. I've got 10 questions about Messi's career. Some will be names. Some will be numbers. We'll add up all the correct answers. And if we have a tie at the end, there will be a tiebreaker to determine our Messi mastermind champion. Thumbs up if you are all ready. And he's at the ready. I love it. All right, here we go. Question one. Who did Messi replace Assassin when he made his debut 20 years ago today? Do we have a little time? You can tell if they're hitting the internet as well, by the way. I know. I'm checking. I'm checking. All right, everybody ready for the answer? Show it up on the screen if you have it. Let's see. Oh, OK. I can't remember. Very good. Very good. All right. And the answer is Deco, of course, in the 82nd minute of the 1-0 win over Espanyol. Deco. Deco is the answer. Fantastic. Question number two. Which former Barcelona player said this? Once they said they can only stop me with a pistol. Today, you need a machine gun to stop Messi. Who said that? When you're ready, throw those answers on the screen. Oh, there's a lot of thinking here, but there's a lot of really forceful writing as well. I'll give you a clue. It's a forward. No idea. Let's see. OK, there's a lot of love for Samuel Eto'o, which is a very good... I love how Rob... Oh, OK. Ronaldo. Who's that? Ronaldinho. Yeah. Or if you put that off and then if you say Ronaldinho, he's going to put that straight in there. Well, neither is correct. It's Yes. Here we go. Question three. Leo made 219 appearances under Pep Guardiola. That's just unbelievable, everybody. 219 appearances under Pep Guardiola. How many goals did he score? Can I have a calculator here? Well, you have your iPhone, right? Is in the iPhone. All right. Show the answers when you have them. OK, we got 195 from Greg Hunter. We've got 220 from Sam Marston. Rodri has 200. Did you say 176? 176. Oh, see, Rob Palmer is waiting for everybody's answer. I'm trying to add them up. I've got them here for the seasons. I just need to add them up. Mental arithmetic. Tell me there's going to be a mental arithmetic on this one. 215 Not bad, everybody. The correct answer is 211. 2-1-1. 2-1-1. I went from 210 to 220. I know. Sam. Nearest wins. Nearest wins. We absolutely at this point, we'll see. All right. Question four. When Diego Maradona died, Messi paid homage by lifting his shirt in the celebration to reveal which kit? Go ahead, Simon. Put it up if you got it. If you got the answer, go ahead. You can post it. Oh, actually, good. Well done. Well, I don't think I don't think anyone's getting this one. I think everyone's getting this one. Yes, I think everybody should know that one. Oh, Graham. No, Graham got it. Yeah, it's it's everybody. Graham got this one wrong, everybody. I'm actually surprised because as Sam said. News, old boys. You tipped the wrong horse at the beginning of the race. Question five. Messi holds the record for the most goals in a calendar year in 2012. How many did he score? No idea. Your guesswork. All right, we've got 92, 98, 93, 91. The answer is 91. Rodri. Any of these. All right. Question six. Who assisted Messi's famous header in the 2009 Champions League final? Of course, it was against Manchester United. Who they beat and who was it? All right. The answer is already written very quickly by Graham Hunter. We'll see if everybody else got it. All right. I got it right. I could have cheated and just copied what they'd written. No, the answer is Xavi. Of course, Xavi is the answer. Messi calling it one of his most important goals. Question seven. Messi is a top scorer ever in La Liga with 474 goals. Who did he pass to take the record in November 2014? You got it up there, Sammy? I'm ready to go. All right. OK, so you're ready. So when everybody's ready, you can post it up. Some people are still thinking. All right. Put it up. Put it up. I'll go with Pichichi. All right. Well, the answer is Thelmo Sarra, of course. He was on 251. Question eight. If you add up all the different shirt numbers that Lionel Messi wore at Barcelona, what is the total number? It's three different numbers. I'll give you a clue there. It's three different numbers. Sam, are you ready? I'm ready. Ready to go. Yeah. It's a beautiful mind over here. GCSE math coming in handy. I didn't know they did it around Barney. All right. Here we go. It is. Well, well, well, well. Let's see. All right. So put it up, buddy. Since Graham Hunter has it up, so you might as well. Some good numbers there. Rodri, I told you three numbers. Yeah, I know, but I didn't know if he lost. Some very good. Some very good. Yeah, this is a tricky one. It's good. But my goodness, Sam Marsden, that GCSE math really did come in. The young man is 59 because he obviously was 30, 19. And then obviously, when Pep Guardiola came, he went to number 10. Question nine. We're getting close here. We're getting close. Question nine. Who has assisted most of Messi's goals at Barcelona? Now think about this one. It may not be what you think. Who has assisted most of Messi's goals at Barcelona? Who has assisted most of Messi's goals at Barcelona? Put it up if you're ready. We've got Dani Alves, Jordi Alba, Dani Alves, Jordi Alba. The answer is his teammate still today. Lucho Suarez is the player that has, yes, 47 assists for Lionel Messi's goal. Here we go. This is the final one, unless it's a tiebreaker. Question number 10. Which club in La Liga, which club in La Liga did Lionel Messi score most against? Straight away, Graham Hunter puts it up. What would you put, Sammy? I think Graham's right. All right, we'll see. Waiting for RP here. RP has Sevilla and Rodri has Sevilla. And the answer is Sevilla. In joint third place, in joint third place, it is Rob Haver and Graham Hunter with three, three. In second with four, it's Sam Marsden with four, meaning that the winner is Rodri with five. I love the Real Madrid correspondent wins it with five. Thank you very much. I dedicate this award to all my teammates. It's been a pleasure to join you all. So like this video, subscribe and comment below. I love it. Rodri Faes, well done, everybody. That was your bestie, best of mine, Graham Hunter, Sam Marsden, Rob Haver, Rodri Faes, Luis Miguel and Che Garay. Let's have a go at the tiebreaker just for fun before we say goodbye. Let's see. Let's see. I'll make it fun for you. I'll make it worth five points for everybody. Are you ready? In his 520 appearances in La Liga, 520 appearances in La Liga, that's ridiculous. How many minutes did he play? How many minutes did he play? How many minutes did Lionel Messi play from his 520 appearances in La Liga? It's the closest. All right, we've got Graham Hunter already with a very solid, confident number here from Graham Hunter. Rodri has, what is that, buddy? One million? One million. I don't know. He's already won, so he doesn't care. 40,000, 40,000. Boys, I'm very impressed. Graham Hunter, I'm very impressed. The number is 42,148 minutes. No way. You were off by basically half of a half. Unbelievable. Well done. If I remember correctly, and the line's really bad, that was a five-pointer? No, it wasn't. I told you you were gonna win. I think that's on tape. Rodri, you were right again. I gotta tell you, I mean, that's very impressive. You were off by 23 minutes. That's all I'm ever off, but it's always 23 minutes. Always. I love it. I love it. Excellent job. Excellent job, everybody. That was really, really good. Very impressive. I want to thank Graham Hunter, Sam Marsden, Rob Palmer, Rodri Faez, Luis Miguel Echegaray. By the way, don't forget, La Liga is only exclusively on ESPN, ESPN Deportes here in the US and North America. Make sure to follow us every day on the website, YouTube, digital, wherever you are. Thank you so much, and have a fantastic rest of your day.