A lot riding on Lionel Messi's record-setting trip to Madrid for clasico

Barcelona great's 45th appearance against Real could be his last in club football’s most famous rivalry

Luka Modric makes it 3-1 to Real Madrid against Barcelona at Camp Nou on Saturday, October 24. Getty

Real midfielder Luka Modric celebrates his goal. Getty

Real's Toni Kroos picks up Lionel Messi after a foul. AFP

Real Madrid's Sergio Ramos celebrates with teammates after scoring their second goal. Reuters

Real were awarded a penalty via VAR after Sergio Ramos was fouled by Barcelona's Clement Lenglet. Reuters

Spanish referee Juan Martinez Munuera reviews the VAR before awarding Real Madrid a penalty. AFP

Sergio Ramos scores Real's second goal from the penalty spot. Getty

Barcelona's Ansu Fati levels the score at 1-1. AFP

Ansu Fati celebrates scoring for Barca. Getty

Real's Sergio Ramos launches a sliding tackle on Sergino Dest of Barca. Reuters

Barca's Lionel Messi surrounded by Real players. Getty

Federico Valverde opens the scoring for Real Madrid. Getty

Barcelona's Lionel Messi skips over a challenge by Casemiro of Real. AFP

Federico Valverde celebrates his goal for Real. Getty

Empty stands at the Camp Nou due to Covid-19 restrictions. AP

Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane, left, and his Barcelona counterpart Ronald Koeman before the match. AFP

Real's Sergio Ramos celebrates scoring from the spot. Reuters

Barca's Lionel Messi receives treatment in the first half. AFP

Barcelona's Philippe Coutinho shoots at goal. Reuters

Lionel Messi, right, celebrates with Barca teammates after Ansu Fati's goal. AFP

Real Madrid's Casemiro under pressure from Frenkie de Jong of Barca. AP

As soon as Lionel Messi crosses the touchline at the Alfredo di Stefano arena on the outskirts of Madrid on Saturday, he will create history. It goes everywhere with him, one record after another, one milestone and then the next.

He will join Madrid’s Sergio Ramos, who misses this weekend’s Real versus Barcelona clash with injury, as the footballer who has played in more clasicos than any other. If, in his 45th appearance in the celebrated fixture, Messi scores, he will have done so in a 70th different stadium as a Barcelona player, the Di Stefano – named after the late Madrid legend – being Real’s temporary home while the Bernabeu is under renovation.

If Messi ends up on the winning side, as he has in 19 clasicos, then a 11th Liga title for Messi will loom larger on his horizon. Three points would take Barcelona to the top of the Spanish table.

But it’s what Messi feels when he crosses back over that touchline after the final whistle that will draw just as much attention as whether or not Bareclona move above the leaders, Atletico Madrid.

Might this really be his last direct participation in club football's most famous rivalry? His contract expires in less than three months time; he tried to leave last August. He is at a Barcelona in transition, knocked out of the Champions League unusually early, battling against the possibility that for the second year running they might go without a trophy.

As long as Messi, 33, keeps his intentions about his future to himself, as he has for the last nine months, every week seems like a threshold, a crossroads in his journey. But the next eight days really do look crucial for how he weighs up his dilemma, assesses the benefits of staying with the club he grew up with, or explores one of the many offers from elsewhere for a fresh adventure next season.

Beyond the clasico, there’s the Copa del Rey final next weekend – Barcelona versus Athletic Bilbao. Win that, and Messi will be the captain who lifts the trophy.

All of which is a far healthier outlook than four months ago, when Barcelona were seventh in La Liga, 12 points behind pacesetters Atletico. They had just lost to Cadiz, and would follow up with a 3-0 home defeat to Juventus in the Champions League.

Barca were absolutely matching the description Messi had given of them shortly before he asked unsuccessfully to leave last August. A “weak team”, he had called Barcelona, “a team that can be beaten by any opponents who show intensity.”

The turnaround since the turn of the year has not been miraculous – Paris Saint-Germain won 4-1 at Camp Nou to bundle Barcelona out of Europe – but it has changed the domestic landscape.

Messi leads a team unbeaten in 19 La Liga matches, drawing just three of them. The captain has scored 19 times in 17 appearances in that run. He is heading the race to be the league’s leading marksman for the eighth time in his career.

He has a new club president, Joan Laporta, elected last month. Messi's relationship with Laporta's predecessor, Josep Maria Bartomeu, had deteriorated badly, and helped motivate his attempt to free himself from his contract.

Laporta is different, an old friend and ally, having previously served as president when Messi made his Barcelona debut, and when he won the first and second of his four Champions League titles with the club.

“I am here to persuade Messi to stay,” Laporta announced on his election as president, for his second stint. He is working hard at it. Part of that persuasion involves assembling, on a budget diminished by rising debts and finances constrained by the pandemic, a squad for 2021-22 that looks like it can compete with the elite again.

Messi, for the first time in 14 seasons, has spent this week watching a Champions League quarter-final round without Barcelona involved. He watched wins for Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, two clubs he has been linked with.

Most attention, though, was reserved for Real Madrid 3, Liverpool 1. Barcelona are not the only ones carrying form and momentum into the clasico: Madrid are 12 games unbeaten, have the strong scent of a European Cup semi-final, and the defence of their league title revived after stumbles against modest opposition.

A win would take them joint top. “We have turned the season around,” said head coach Zinedine Zidane, “and because of the character of this team, there’s no limit to what we can aim for.”