Messi Makes the FC 100 for the Tenth Time: A Decade as the Best of His Era

Ten years, four jerseys and one name that never missed the appointment. When ESPN launched the first edition of the FC 100 in 2016, Lionel Messi was 29 years old and still the undisputed king of Camp Nou. A decade later, having just turned 39, he's still there. Not out of nostalgia or accumulated prestige: the ranking is built season by season based on actual performance, and Messi earned his spot all over again.

To understand what that streak means, it helps to look back at everything that changed in between. In 2016, Messi was the absolute leader of a Barcelona side that kept piling up La Liga and Copa del Rey titles. He won the 2019 Ballon d'Or and closed out his time in Catalonia with a number that's already part of club history: 672 goals in 778 official matches. Paris came next: two Ligue 1 titles and a Trophée des Champions with PSG, a more debated stretch but just as productive in the numbers.

His arrival at Inter Miami in 2023 brought a different version of the player. Less explosiveness, more reading of the game. Less running, more dead balls and threaded passes. That new version delivered the 2023 Leagues Cup, the 2024 Supporters' Shield and the 2025 MLS Cup, along with two league MVP awards, in 2024 and 2025.

The Missing Piece, with the National Team

Meanwhile, with Argentina, he kept checking off the one thing that had eluded him. The 2021 and 2024 Copa America titles, the 2022 Finalissima and, above all, the World Cup in Qatar. In the most recent World Cup, he was a leading figure again at 39: he played eight matches, scored eight goals and added four assists in a tournament that ended with Argentina as runner-up.

Rivals and peers from his generation have also left testimonials that explain why he keeps showing up on these lists. Lamine Yamal recalled that Messi told him to keep following his own path, that the future belongs to the new generation, and summed up his admiration plainly:

He's the best in history.Lamine Yamal

Jude Bellingham, after facing him, spoke in similar terms about what it meant to share the field with him, describing it as a privilege to have played against one of the greatest footballers of all time.

The FC 100 was never meant to be a historical list, but rather a snapshot of the present. That's exactly why its value lies in the repetition: heading into 2025, Messi already had nine consecutive appearances, alongside Robert Lewandowski and Jan Oblak, among the few who had been there since the ranking's inception. This tenth appearance, in 2026, confirms something simple: he's changed leagues, countries and even his style of play, but he's never stopped being among the best of his time.