SPORT exclusive: Messi destroyed the GPS

“He’s happy, he’s renewed his contract at Barcelona and he’s turned up at pre-season like a train”, sources in the dressing room said about Leo Messi before the tour to the US. And we had doubts because such exaggerations are often made about great players from the dressing room.

It wasn’t until the first friendly that we could see that the claims were true and backed up by the data. According to our sources his GPS data and parameters were incredible. All Barça players wear a GPS tracker during pre-season matches to monitor their physical and metabolic condition.

And on Sunday, Leo Messi’s GPS showed numbers that had never been seen before in pre-season. While obviously the exact figures are confidential, we have been told that “they are Messi’s best in pre-season” in terms of the number of kilometres run, acceleration, top speed, speed over 20 metres and aerobic capacity and numerous other categories.

Despite this, it should be pointed out that Messi is often coming off the back of a World Cup or Copa America in June, which affects his physical preparation and means the player barely has any holiday time.

Nevertheless, he has reported back this season “like a storm”, which when added to his incredible talent, makes him a “complete leader” in every sense. And an image paints a thousand words: to see Leo defending in the right back position when Aleix Vidal was upfield and the way he pressured Juve’s players when in possession highlight what good condition he is in. In fact, the Argentinian recovered the ball six times.

And if the leader is the first to sacrifice himself, the rest have to follow, giving 200% if needs be.