Luis Suarez’s departure from Barcelona is getting closer. He is reportedly one step away from joining Atletico Madrid.
That way, it means that Lionel Messi will lose his best friend again since the departure of Neymar Junior, Andreas Iniesta, and Xavi Hernandez.
Messi and Suarez are known to be very close. On the field, the two of them became Barcelona’s main forward on the front lines. While outside the field several times the two of them were seen going out or on vacation with their respective families.
They started to become friends since Suarez came to the Catalan club in mid-2014. At that time, Luis Enrique formed a trio of death Messi-Suarez-Neymar.
In that season, MSN’s friendship became close. They even have a special WhatsApp group that only contains the three Latin American players.
The closeness of the three of them bears sweet fruit in the field because there is mutual understanding. Over three seasons MSN has scored 364 goals and 173 assists. They also won nine trophies in three years as the Blaugrana offensive trio.
Neymar’s departure to PSG then made MSN disband. Left Messi and Suarez. However, both of them could still help Barcelona win the title.
Last season alone, Messi-Suarez contributed 70 percent of Barcelona’s overall goals in all competitions. In total Messi scored 31 goals and 26 assists, while Suarez had 21 goals and 12 assists.
Long before MSN, Messi also had a very good relationship with Iniesta and Xavi.
Together with Iniesta and Xavi, Messi appeared deadly. Both of them became creators of attack and suppliers of mature passes to Messi who finished very well.
The collaboration between Messi, Iniesta and Xavi began to take shape when Josep Guardiola coached Barcelona in 2008.
If traced further back, Messi at the beginning of his career also had a friend and teacher with Ronaldinho since 2004. Messi has on several occasions said that Ronaldinho has always provided advice as well as mentoring in playing football at the highest level.
Now after approximately 16 years of a career in the Barcelona first team, Messi is likely to be alone on the pitch for the 2020/2021 season.
There will be no more friends playing if Suarez really does move to Atletico. Which means that Messi will face Suarez as an opponent on the field, at least in the two Spanish League matches between Barcelona versus Atletico.
