Lionel Messi's first 'Panenka free-kick' for Barcelona in 2009/10

Lionel Messi introduced the ‘Panenka free-kick’ to the world at Barcelona.

As one of the most innovative footballers to have ever played the beautiful game, Messi invented many skills, tricks and techniques during his time in the famous red and blue stripes.

Besides, while Messi could well go on to achieve incredible things at Paris Saint-Germain, there’s no denying that his greatest years in the sport came while playing for Barcelona.

There are simply too many moments to count where Messi produced something while playing for the Catalans that either defied description or simply had never been executed in football before.

And to be honest, there’s good reason to think that metric is all the more important than pure goal and assist statistics when it comes to bringing supporters to their feet.

It’s one thing to bag a Ballon d’Or trophy for scoring 73 goals in a season, but it’s just as special to make the day of 99,000 people by whipping out the best piece of skill that they’ve ever seen.

And one of the most breath-taking moments that Messi ever produced at Barcelona that would fit into that category would be the ‘Panenka free-kick’ that he scored against Espanyol in 2019.

Essentially chipping a free-kick straight down the middle like the notorious penalty technique, Messi looked to have invented a whole new way to score a set-piece with his outrageous goal.

However, while that might just be the greatest ‘Panenka free-kick’ in football history, there’s good reason to think that it wasn’t the first because Messi himself had pulled it off once before too.

So, join us in casting our minds back to the 2009/10 season and the away trip to Almeria in La Liga, which ultimately finished in a 2-2 draw where Messi found the back of