Peak Messi

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

Seeing his friend spacing out, Deulofeu waved his hand in front of him and asked with a face full of confusion.

"Yeah, I'm listening!"

Lin Quan snapped back to reality and replied.

Deulofeu looked unconvinced and asked curiously:

"What were you thinking about? I called you several times and you didn't react."

Seeing his friend's confused expression, Lin Quan knew this guy's curiosity was piqued.

So he made up an excuse to brush it off:

"I was just thinking, how many goals will Messi score this year?"

Messi was Deulofeu's idol. As soon as Lin Quan mentioned his idol, he immediately became interested.

"I think, at least sixty or seventy goals?"

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

His performance this season was clearly better than last year, so there was a high probability that his total goals would surpass last year's.

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

"Gerrard, isn't Messi your idol? Why are you predicting so conservatively?"

"Conservatively?"

Deulofeu looked completely bewildered. Sixty or seventy goals was conservative?

He was very curious, in Lin Quan's opinion, how many goals would be considered not conservative?

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

"I think he can score eighty, or even ninety goals!"

Lin Quan answered with a serious expression.

"Don't joke, do you know what the world record is?"

Deulofeu's eyes widened when he heard Lin Quan's words, his face full of disbelief.

You have to know, the current world record is 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 this world record wasn't something that could be broken easily.

Gerd Müller's record was set in 1972, and for a full 40 years, no one had been able to break it, not even come close.

Although Messi was great, Deulofeu couldn't even imagine Messi breaking this record.

"I know, the current world record is 85 goals in a calendar year set by German player Gerd Müller in 1972 while playing for Bayern Munich!"

"But Messi has already scored 46 goals in the first five months of this year, up to this match. He's less than 40 goals away from Gerd Müller's record."

"And it's only been five months this year, he still has plenty of time to keep scoring. Based on his current form, I don't think this record is that unattainable!"

Deulofeu was finally convinced. He started counting the probability of Messi breaking the world record on his fingers and stopped bothering Lin Quan.

Lin Quan withdrew his gaze from Deulofeu and looked back at the field.

After scoring the fourth goal, Messi and the other players from Barca walked towards the coach's bench to find their head coach, Guardiola.

"Thank you, Pep, these four goals are for you!"

Messi gave Guardiola a hug and said in his ear.

Guardiola patted Messi's back hard, his eyes a little red and his nose feeling a bit sore.

"Thank you too, Leo, you deserve the cheers of 100,000 people at Camp Nou!"

The memories of his four years coaching at Camp Nou flashed before his eyes, making him feel a mix of emotions.

He was a player from Barca's youth academy. Since joining Barca at the age of 13, he had played for them for seventeen years.

It could be said that the majority of his professional career was spent at Barca.

And after retiring and transitioning to coaching, the first team he coached was Barca's B team.

It was precisely because of his outstanding coaching record with Barca B that he won Barca's favor and was quickly promoted to head coach of the first team.

Subsequently, in his four years as head coach of the first team, he led Barca to 3 league titles, 2 Champions League titles, 2 Copa del Rey titles, 3 Spanish Super Cup titles, 2 UEFA Super Cup titles, and 2 FIFA Club World Cup titles.

The four years under his management were called the "Dream Three Dynasty" by Barca fans, and it was the most successful period in Barca's history, bar none.

Such brilliant achievements not only gave him a high status in the hearts of fans but also earned him the respect and love of the players.

There were many great players during their peak. It was rare for players to encounter a good coach during their own peak, achieve a series of successes, and win a large number of championship trophies.

Including Messi and a group of Barca players, especially the young players promoted by Guardiola from the youth academy, were very grateful to Guardiola.

Without him sending away star players like Ibrahimović and Eto'o, these young players might not have had a chance to shine.

Without his possession-based tactics, Barca's record wouldn't have been so good.

Now, a meritorious coach who led them to grow and achieve brilliant results was leaving.

Many young players felt very uneasy, worried about losing their place in the new coach's tactical system.

Therefore, when they saw Guardiola's genuine emotions, one by one, they mustered the courage to ask him to stay again:

"Stay, coach, Barca needs you!"

"Yeah, stay, boss, we need you too!"

Guardiola felt a bit bitter. He had achieved glory at Barca and had so many excellent players under his command.

If circumstances allowed, he actually didn't want to leave.

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

Especially since Rosell had boldly cleared out his opponents under the guise of reform, even stripping the honorary president title from the meritorious legend Cruyff, who had made huge contributions to the team.

This made Guardiola extremely disgusted with Rosell. As the club's head coach, it would be very difficult to do his job well if he couldn't manage a good relationship with the club president.

Signs of this had already appeared this season, with some players, led by Piqué, gradually showing signs of breaking free from his control.

Guardiola felt that this was Rosell's warning through the players, forcing him to leave.

Thus, without having secured a new club, Guardiola decided to resign from Barca.

This was to show his stance: he was not a traitor to Barca, but was forced to leave.

So, at this moment, facing the players' pleas to stay, he could only smile bitterly and shake his head:

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

Perhaps Guardiola's refusal to stay affected the players' mood, leading to Barca not only failing to score in the subsequent match but also committing fouls and receiving cards.

Tello and captain Puyol were shown yellow cards within five minutes, and Messi missed a one-on-one chance in the 87th minute. If he had scored, he would have achieved a miracle of scoring five goals.

Normally, Guardiola would have expressed his dissatisfaction from the sidelines at this point, but this time, he chose to sit calmly on the bench, drinking water, without leaving his seat.

It was already four-nil, with only one minute left in the match, and not even four minutes including stoppage time. It was impossible for the opponent to make a comeback.

As long as the players didn't make any more unforced errors and get red cards, nothing else mattered.

However, even getting a red card wouldn't matter, because Barca had long since been out of contention for the league title this season. They were 7 points behind Real Madrid in the standings, and the outcome of the last match would not affect the result.

For Barca, a match with no stakes like this could be played casually.

Four minutes later, the referee blew the final whistle.

Thanks to Messi's four goals, Barcelona defeated city rivals Espanyol 4-0 at home, ending their entire home schedule in La Liga for the season.