Peak Messi

"Lin, Lin, did you hear what I said?"

Seeing his friend lost in thought, Deulofeu waved a hand in front of his eyes and asked with a puzzled look.

"Yeah, I was listening!"

Lin Quan came back to his senses and replied.

Deulofeu clearly did not believe him and asked curiously:

"What were you thinking about just now? I called you several times, but you didn't react at all."

Seeing the confusion on his friend's face, Lin Quan knew the guy's curiosity had been piqued.

So he made up an excuse to brush him off:

"I was thinking about how many goals Messi could score this year."

Messi was Deulofeu's idol. The moment Lin Quan mentioned him, Deulofeu became interested.

"I think he has to score sixty or seventy, right?"

Messi had scored a total of 57 goals in the 2010-2011 season, 53 for his club and 4 for his national team.

His performance this season was clearly better than last year's, so there was a strong chance his total goal tally would surpass it.

Hearing Deulofeu's answer, Lin Quan smiled and shook his head.

"Gerard, isn't Messi your idol? Why are you being so conservative with your prediction?"

"Conservative?"

Deulofeu looked utterly baffled. Sixty or seventy goals was conservative?

He was curious. In Lin Quan's eyes, what would count as not being conservative?

"Then how many goals do you think Messi can score?"

"I think eighty, maybe even ninety!"

Lin Quan answered with a serious expression.

"Stop joking. Do you know what the world record is?"

Deulofeu's eyes widened at Lin Quan's words, his face full of disbelief.

After all, the current world record was only 85 goals.

If Messi could score eighty or ninety goals, wouldn't that mean he had a chance to break the world record?

But how could such a record be so easy to break?

Gerd Müller had set the record in 1972. It had stood for a full forty years, and no one had come close to breaking it—no one had even come near it.

Messi was certainly great, but Deulofeu simply could not imagine him breaking that record.

"I know. The current world record is 85 goals in a calendar year, set by German player Gerd Müller at Bayern Munich in 1972!"

"But in the first five months of this year, up to this match, Messi has already scored 46 goals. He's less than forty goals away from Gerd Müller's record."

"And only five months have passed this year. He still has plenty of time to keep scoring. Based on his current form, I don't think that record is so far out of reach!"

Deulofeu was finally convinced. He began counting on his fingers, calculating the odds of Messi breaking the world record, and stopped bothering Lin Quan.

Lin Quan withdrew his gaze from Deulofeu and looked back toward the pitch.

After scoring his fourth goal, Messi and the other Barca players walked toward the bench to find their manager, Guardiola.

"Thank you, Pep. These four goals are for you!"

Messi hugged Guardiola and whispered in his ear.

Guardiola patted Messi firmly on the back. His eyes were slightly red, and his nose stung.

"I should be thanking you too, Leo. You deserve the cheers of a hundred thousand people at Camp Nou!"

Every moment from his four years managing at Camp Nou flashed before his eyes, filling him with complicated emotions.

He had come through Barca's youth academy. Since joining Barca at the age of thirteen, he had spent seventeen years there.

It could be said that he had spent most of his professional career at Barca.

After retiring and becoming a coach, the first team he managed was Barca B.

It was precisely because of his outstanding results with Barca B that he won Barca's favor and was quickly promoted to Head Coach of the first team.

Then, during his four years with the first team, he won Barca 3 league titles, 2 Champions League titles, 2 King's Cups, 3 Spanish Super Cups, 2 UEFA Super Cups, and 2 Club World Cups.

The four years Barca spent under his management were known by Barca fans as the Dream Team III dynasty, the greatest era in Barca's history without question.

Such brilliant achievements gave him not only an extremely high standing among the fans, but also the players' respect and affection.

There were plenty of great players in their prime, but few encountered a great coach during their own peak, achieved a string of successes, and won a mountain of trophies.

The Barca players, including Messi, especially the young players Guardiola had promoted from the youth ranks, were all deeply grateful to him.

Without him moving on stars like Ibrahimović and Eto'o, those young players might never have had a chance to emerge.

Without his Tiki-taka tactics, Barca would not have achieved such results.

Now, the decorated coach who had guided them as they grew and led them to glory was leaving.

Many of the young players felt deeply uneasy. They worried they would lose their places in the new coach's tactical system.

So when they saw Guardiola's genuine emotions, they gathered their courage and tried once again to persuade him to stay.

"Please stay, Coach. Barca needs you!"

"Yeah, stay, boss. We need you too!"

Guardiola felt bitter. He had achieved glory at Barca and still had so many outstanding players under him.

If circumstances allowed, he did not want to leave either.

But the club had changed presidents. Laporta had left, and Rosell, who replaced him, did not have a good relationship with him.

In particular, Rosell had used reform as an excuse to ruthlessly purge dissidents. He had even stripped legendary Barca icon Cruyff of his honorary president title, despite all he had contributed to the team.

This made Guardiola deeply resent Rosell. As the club's Head Coach, if he could not maintain a good relationship with the club president, it would be very difficult for him to do his job well.

Signs of this had already appeared this season. Some players, led by Piqué, were gradually slipping beyond his control.

Guardiola felt this was a warning Rosell had sent through the players, pressuring him to leave.

So, without even settling on his next destination, Guardiola decided to resign from Barca.

This was his way of making his stance clear. He was not a traitor to Barca; he was simply forced to leave.

Thus, when faced with the players' pleas, he could only smile bitterly and shake his head.

"Don't say that, children. The match isn't over yet. Enjoy the game, and enjoy the fans' cheers!"

Perhaps Guardiola's rejection affected the players' mood, because Barca not only failed to score again in the rest of the match, but also committed foul after foul and picked up cards.

Tello and captain Puyol each received a yellow card within five minutes. Messi also missed a one-on-one chance in the 87th minute. If he had scored that one, he would have completed the miracle of five goals in a match.

Under normal circumstances, Guardiola would definitely have shown his dissatisfaction from the sidelines, but this time, he chose to sit calmly on the bench and drink water without leaving his seat.

It was already 4-0, with only one minute left in normal time. Even including stoppage time, there would be no more than four minutes remaining. The opposition could not possibly turn it around.

As long as the players did not make any more basic mistakes and receive a red card, nothing else mattered.

But even a red card did not really matter, because Barca had long since lost any chance of winning the league this season. Real Madrid had opened up a seven-point gap over them in the League Table, and the result of the final match would not affect anything.

For Barca, a match with nothing left to play for could be handled however they liked.

Four minutes later, the referee blew the final whistle.

Thanks to Messi's four-goal haul, Barcelona defeated their city rivals Espanyol 4-0 at home, wrapping up all of their home matches in La Liga this season.