"I started playing with him when he was 13 and the guy was insane." Gerard Piqué didn't need long to make his point on the The Late Run podcast — and honestly, he rarely does.
Piqué was recalling his time alongside a teenage Lionel Messi at La Masía, Barcelona's famed academy. The results were absurd. "We were winning all the games 15-0, 20-0, and he scored a lot of goals every game." That kind of dominance at youth level isn't unusual — what was unusual was that everyone watching already sensed this kid was different.
The question mark nobody talks about
What Piqué's account does well is cut through the mythology. Messi wasn't an inevitable superstar. He was a slight, undersized Argentine with growth hormone deficiency who needed medical treatment just to develop normally. The scouts and coaches around him saw the talent — they also saw the risk.
"There was this big question mark about whether he would be able to translate everything he was doing at the academy to first-team football," Piqué said. "And that was the big question mark because if he could replicate everything he was doing, he would surely change the history of the game. And he did."
He did. 35 trophies at Barcelona. Ten La Liga titles. Four Champions Leagues. Seven Copa del Reys. The doubts didn't survive contact with professional football — Messi did.
Messi vs. Ronaldo — Piqué doesn't hesitate
Piqué is one of the few people alive who can weigh in on the GOAT debate from genuine firsthand experience. He played alongside both. His verdict is unambiguous.
"For me, there's no doubt. It's Messi. The level of talent he has — I've never seen any other player like that. Ronaldo was a machine, always working out in the gym; he prepared himself like nobody ever did, but in terms of talent, Messi was just insane."
That's not a slight on Ronaldo. Piqué calls them both the two best players in the history of the game. But when pressed, he goes with the man he first met as a 13-year-old scoring goals in 20-0 walkovers at a Barcelona training ground.
Piqué retired in November 2022. Messi, now 37, is still going — playing MLS football with Inter Miami and preparing to defend Argentina's World Cup title in the summer of 2026. The kid from La Masía never did stop scoring.
