Lionel Messi at 33: Barcelona's brilliant forward has two key objectives left

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Ben Hayward24 June 2020

Lionel Messi's next goal will be the 700th of his career. His next trophy will be his 35th at Barcelona. He has six Ballons d'Or. Six European Golden Shoes.

The Argentine attacker is recognised by many of his contemporaries and former players as the greatest of all time. The finest footballer ever.

But as the Barca captain turned 33 on Wednesday, he is still driven by two big objectives – and time is now running out to achieve them.

For all the spectacular success over his career, Messi's four Champions League wins seem somehow insufficient.

In the first of those, he did not even feature beyond the last 16, limping out of the second leg against Chelsea at Camp Nou and missing the remainder of the campaign.

Even Uefa appeared to discredit Messi's 2006 success in a recent tweet, which referenced only Cristiano Ronaldo, Clarence Seedorf and Andres Iniesta as four-time winners.

In any case, Messi has admitted his frustration at not being able to win the trophy since Barca claimed the treble in 2015, with the five-year anniversary of that triumph in Berlin having passed earlier this month.

Ahead of the 2018-19 season, the Argentine told Barcelona's fans at Camp Nou that the team would do "everything possible to bring back that special trophy", but Ernesto Valverde's side fell short after a monumental collapse at Anfield.

Due to coronavirus, the final rounds of the competition will be played in Lisbon over a two-week period this term in one-off games in August. Barcelona first have to overcome Napoli in their last-16 second-leg match and on current form, hardly look like favourites to go all the way.

For all that Messi has won, there probably should be another Champions League winner's medal in his collection - and Iniesta said recently that Barcelona should have taken advantage of the Argentine's era to claim the trophy at least once more.

And then there is his national team. After winning the Under-20 World Cup with Argentina in 2005 and an Olympic gold medal in 2008, Messi looked set to claim silverware with the senior side, but he is still waiting.

The Barca captain has lost four finals with the Albiceleste (three Copas America and one World Cup), including three in a row between 2014 and 2016.

In Pictures | Lionel Messi

FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 - Final - Argentina v France
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"I would give anything to win something with Argentina," he has said on a number of occasions in the past.

He should have at least two more chances. This year's Copa America has been put back until 2021 due to Covid-19, while he will be 35 by the time the 2022 World Cup in Qatar comes around.

As he approaches the twilight of an extraordinary career, it is those objectives which are driving him on and you get the impression that his time as a footballer will not be entirely fulfilled without them.

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