Peak Messi

"Lin, Lin, are you even listening to me?"

Deulofeu saw his friend lost in thought, so he waved his hand in front of Lin's eyes, looking puzzled.

"Yeah, I'm here listening!"

Lin snapped out of it and replied.

Deulofeu appeared incredulous and curious, "What were you thinking? I called you several times, and you didn't respond at all?"

Seeing his friend's quizzical look, Lin knew that his curiosity had been piqued. So, he came up with an excuse and casually brushed it off, "I was just thinking about how many goals Messi can score this year?"

Messi is Deulofeu's idol, so upon hearing Lin mention his idol, Deulofeu immediately became interested.

"I think it must be around sixty or seventy goals?"

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

His performance this season is visibly better than the previous year, so there's a good chance that his total goals will surpass last year's.

Hearing Deulofeu's response, Lin smiled and shook his head, "Gerard, isn't Messi your idol? Why are your predictions so conservative?"

"Conservative?!" Deulofeu looked bewildered, "Sixty or seventy goals is conservative?" He was curious about what Lin would consider to be a non-conservative estimate.

"What do you think Messi will score?"

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

Lin replied earnestly.

"Don't joke around. Do you know what the world record is?"

Deulofeu widened his eyes upon hearing Lin's words, looking incredulous. Currently, the world record stands at 85 goals.

If Messi could score eighty or ninety goals, does that mean he has a chance to break the world record? But breaking this record won't be so easy, Gerd Muller set this record in 1972, and no one has come close to it, let alone broken it.

"I know, the current world record is 85 goals set by German player Gerd Muller in 1972 at Bayern Munich!"

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

"And there are still many games left this year for him to continue scoring. Based on his current form, I believe this record isn't that unattainable!"

Finally convinced, Deulofeu started calculating the probability of Messi breaking the world record, without interrupting Lin any further.

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

After scoring his fourth goal, Messi and his Barcelona teammates walked towards the coach's bench to meet their manager, Guardiola.

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

Messi hugged Guardiola and spoke to him.

Guardiola patted Messi's back tightly, his eyes were slightly red, a hint of melancholy in his voice.

"I'm thankful to you too, Leo. You deserve the applause from the 100,000 fans in Camp Nou!"

Every bit of Guardiola's career in Camp Nou over the four years of his coaching career flashed before his eyes, leaving him feeling mixed emotions.

He was a product of Barcelona's youth academy, joining Barcelona at the age of 13, and had a career that spanned seventeen years, most of which he spent at Barcelona.

After retiring and transitioning into coaching, his first team was Barcelona B, and it was his excellent performances there that earned him the favor of Barcelona, rapidly promoting him to the head coach of the first team.

During his four years coaching the first team, he secured three league championships, two UEFA Champions League trophies, two Copa del Rey trophies, three Spanish Super Cups, two UEFA Super Cups, and two FIFA Club World Cups.

His coaching years at Barcelona were dubbed the Dream Three Dynasty by Barça fans, marking the best period in the club's history. His remarkable achievements not only earned him high regard among the fans but also the respect and admiration of the players.

Peak players during their professional careers and encountering an excellent coach, achieving a series of accomplishments, and winning a lot of championship trophies are rare. Including Messi, many Barcelona players, especially the young players who were promoted by Guardiola from the La Masia youth academy, were very grateful to Guardiola.

Without him, getting rid of star players such as Ibrahimovic and Eto'o, these young players might not have had a bright future. Without his possession-based tactics, Barcelona's performance wouldn't have been as good.

Now, such a coach who nurtured and helped them achieve splendid results is about to go.

Many young players were quite anxious, fearing the uncertainty of their positions in the new coach's tactics. As a result, when they saw Guardiola's true emotions, each one of them said:

"Stay coach, Barcelona needs you!"

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

Pep Guardiola's mood was a bit bitter, he has achieved greatness in Barcelona, and there are so many excellent players under his hands.

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

However, the club changed its president, Laporta left, and Rosell, who replaced him, didn't get along with Guardiola.

Especially, Rosell, under the guise of reform, ousted his opponents. He even stripped the title of honorary captain from Cruyff, who had made huge contributions to the team.

This made Guardiola very resentful towards Rosell because as the club's head coach, it would be very difficult for him to work without having a good relationship with the club's president.

The signs had already appeared this season, and some players, led by Piqué, had gradually begun to detach from his control.

This made Guardiola feel like this was Rosell's warning to him through the players' mouths, forcing him to leave.

So, without having finalized a new job, Guardiola decided to leave Barcelona.

This was to show his position. He wasn't a traitor to Barcelona; he was just forced to leave.

So, when faced with the players' pleas to stay as he prepared to leave at that moment, all he could do was smile bitterly and shake his head, "Enough of this, kids! The game isn't over yet. Enjoy this game and the cheers of the fans!"

Maybe Guardiola's refusal to be persuaded by the players affected their mood because in the following games, Barcelona not only failed to score but also committed fouls and received cards.

In a span of five minutes, Busquets and the captain Puyol, consecutively received yellow cards. Even Messi missed a one-on-one opportunity in the 87th minute. If he had scored, it would have been a miraculous five-goal performance.

Under normal circumstances, Guardiola would surely have shown his displeasure from the sidelines. But this time, he chose to sit calmly on the coach's bench and drink water, not leaving his seat.

With a lead of 4-0 and just one minute left in the game, plus an added four minutes of added injury time, there was no way for the opposing team to overturn the score.

As long as the players didn't make any more basic mistakes leading to red cards, everything else didn't matter.

Even if they received red cards, it wouldn't have mattered because Barcelona had already missed out on the league title this season. Real Madrid had opened up a gap of 7 points on the points table, and the result of the last game didn't affect the outcome.

For Barcelona, this match was without any desire. It didn't matter how they played.

After four minutes, the referee blew the final whistle.

Lionel Messi's four-goal feat led Barcelona to a 4-0 victory against their city rivals Espanyol, ending all their home games in La Liga for this season.