Noticias

Leo Messi published the following farewell message to Ernesto Valverde on his social media accounts: “Thanks for everything, míster. I'm sure you'll do really well wherever you go because, as well as being an excellent professional, you're a great person. Good luck and a big hug”.

Leo Messi reflected on FC Barcelona's involvement in the Spanish Super Cup in the following terms: "We wanted to make the final and win the competition, but the account we gave of ourselves differed greatly to how we've been performing of late. We put in a great performance but unfortunately failed to come out on top".

"We're really hurting because despite all of the talk about the new format of the Spanish Super Cup, we wanted to fight to lift the trophy and battle to win it and it's a real blow to have been knocked out, particularly when you look at how the game panned out and given that it was mistakes from us that allowed them to break on the counter", added the Azulgranas' captain.

After touching down in Jeddah on Tuesday, Leo Messi's FC Barcelona side today trained as preparations continued ahead of their Spanish Super Cup semi-final tie. The Azulgranas' skipper heads into the tournament, which represents a first opportunity to secure silverware this term, brimming with energy and raring to continue to etch his name into the competition's history books.

The meeting with Atlético Madrid will determine the competition's second finalists following on from Real Madrid's 3-1 win over Valencia in the first of the two semi-finals.

Leo Messi is currently in Saudi Arabia ahead of the latest edition of the Spanish Super Cup. The FC Barcelona travelling party touched down in Jeddah on Tuesday and the team is set to train tomorrow prior to Thursday's semi-final meeting with Atlético Madrid.

The Spanish Super Cup is one of Messi's favourite tournaments. The Argentine has lifted the trophy eight times as a Barça player and is the competition's all-time leading scorer with 13 goals to his name.

Leo Messi this morning took part in FC Barcelona's traditional open training session. Supporters revelled in watching their heroes in action at the Estadi Johan Cruyff in a session held on the eve of Three Kings' Day.

A few hours later, the Argentine forward visited the Casa Ronald McDonald, along with Luis Suárez, to hand out presents to the children as a part of the Azulgranas' visits to the hospitals of Barcelona.

Leo Messi's Barcelona ended the first half of the La Liga campaign top of the pile following their 2-2 stalemate against Espanyol, the Azulgranas' captain's first outing of the calendar year, to be crowned as the division's winter champions. The Barça goals were scored by Luis Suárez and Arturo Vidal.

In the wake of this result, which sees Barcelona retain their place at the summit for yet another matchday, Messi now goes in search of his first silverware of the season in the Spanish Super Cup, with Barça set to do battle with Atlético Madrid on Thursday for a place in the final.