Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman called Lionel Messi "the most important player" in the club's history after the Argentine made his 767th appearance for the Catalan team on Monday.<\/p>\n
Messi has now drawn level with Xavi's all-time appearance record for the club and the Argentine is very likely to break it when the team travels to face Real Sociedad in the league on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old celebrated his record-equaling achievement with another vintage performance in his side's 4-1 win over Huesca.<\/p>\n
He typically marked the occasion with two goals, the first of which was a spectacular strike from distance."What more can you say?" Koeman told reporters after the match. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
"His level over so many years, over so many games […] he's the most important player in Barcelona's history and thank goodness he's still here with us.<\/p>\n
"I think he's shown he's the best player in the world. The first goal he scored was fantastic, and he deserves to be the focal point of this team."<\/p>\n
Koeman has previously said he hopes to convince Messi to stay at his childhood club after the Argentine's deal runs out at the end of the season.<\/p>\n
Messi is currently free to enter into negotiations with other clubs over a potential move in the summer and there is likely to be no shortage of interest.<\/p>\n
The Argentine made public his desire to leave last summer, and it has been looking increasingly unlikely he will sign a new contract.<\/p>\n
The club and its fans will hope new president Joan Laporta can help convince him to stay, having previously served in the position from 2003 to 2010 — one of the most successful eras in Barca's history when Messi became a household name.<\/p>\n
"To play alongside Leo [Messi] is an absolute joy. I enjoy going to training everyday," said 18-year-old Pedri, a key figure in the new generation of players coming through at the club.<\/p>\n
"Whenever I get it, I try and pass to him because every time he touches the ball, something happens. It's absolutely crazy what he's achieving. He's the best player in the world."<\/p>\n
Barcelona's win over bottom-club Huesca puts it second in La Liga, only four points behind leader Atletico Madrid.<\/p>\n
Although Barca was knocked out of the Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain last week, the performance shows the club may now be heading it the right direction.<\/p>\n
For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman called Lionel Messi "the most important player" in the club's history after the Argentine made his 767th appearance for the Catalan […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45780"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45780"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45782,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45780\/revisions\/45782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}