Lionel Messi's enduring appeal shown by INCREDIBLE Barcelona shirt sales

Barcelona have announced their highest selling jerseys in the club store, and the top three will shock you.

Lamine Yamal being the highest-selling shirt will come as no surprise and Robert Lewandowski being behind him also makes sense.

But third on the list is a player who doesn't even play for Barcelona anymore: Lionel Messi.

While the Blaugrana cannot sell official shirt with Messi's name on, Javi Miguel reports that it's a common practice for people to order a plain jersey and then customise it with Messi's name his famous number 10.

This is an absolutely ridiculous situation when you think about it.

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Lamine Yamal is the superstar of the current side. A 17 year-old prodigy, he is one of the best and most thrilling players in the game right now. Barcelona-born and educated in La Masia, he represents everything the club wants to be.

Robert Lewandowski is one of the greatest strikers of all-time and certainly of this century. His stature as a goalscorer is impeccable and he is a monumental figure in Polish football. He is also the current top scorer in the team, repeatedly banging the goals in to guide Barcelona to big wins.

Then there's a guy who hasn't played for the club since 2021.

Except he isn't just any guy, is he?

He's the GOAT, the greatest player to have ever played the game.

Lionel Messi is the greatest

And even years after his departure, even as Barcelona have moved on in a sporting sense. They have a new goalscoring hero, and a new dribbling wizard to worship, and even a new South American forward to adore (Raphinha is number 4 in the list), Lionel Messi is still the main man to Barcelona fans.

Messi's enormity is contained within the description of Barcelona's new trident. Messi is all of them at once, together in one man.

And he has repeatedly expressed his love and admiration for Barcelona. He never countenanced leaving the club despite lucrative offers.

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Even his eventual departure was against his will, as the club literally could not afford to bring him back. So he had to join PSG, then Inter Miami.

Messi loves Barcelona

But even in his dotage out in America, he expresses his love for the Blaugrana. He has the Barcelona crest tattooed on his leg, he shouts out their victories on social media, and of course he has recruited former team-mates from Barcelona to come out and enjoy semi-retirement with him.

Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and Luis Suarez are all at Inter Miami because Messi still yearned for that Barcelona connection. Even his manager there is Javier Mascherano, a former team-mate of Messi's in Catalunya.

There have been no recriminations, no statements expressing his disgust, no ill will over how he was treated.

Most superstars leave Barcelona under a cloud. It's rare for any club legend to leave on good terms. But while those that do leave often, with great justification, express their frustrations at how they were treated (see the recent comments from Romario and Ronaldo), there's not a peep from Messi.

Messi has every right to hold a grudge, he clearly does not. And that matters. A lot.

That love for Barcelona is why he is still loved in Barcelona.

Then you get to his achievements.

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Lionel Messi's records

If you're a tourist coming to Barcelona, you will probably be aware of the current team, but besides Lewandowski it is mostly a young side with very few superstars.

Lionel Messi's achievements still cast a massive shadow. 672 goals for Barcelona, the record... 91 goals in a calendar year, the record... the most goals (474), assists (192) and hat-tricks (47) in La Liga history.

10 La Liga titles, 7 Copas del Rey, 7 Supercopas, 4 Champions Leagues, 3 UEFA Super Cups and 3 FIFA Club World Cups.

He was the cornerstone of two Trebles, and the key player in arguably the greatest club side to ever play the game of football under Pep Guardiola.

And more than just that, it was the way he played the game. So fluid and poetic, full of jagged skill and effortless grace. Anointed with the kind of mind that could split an atom with a pass, the kind of body control to juke a man out of his shoes, his was a limitless potential.

No Barcelona player comes close to matching those achievements. So it's perfectly understandable that so many people buying replica shirts want Messi.

Further, he's still good! Alright he's obviously a diminished force compared to his peak, but it feels like every week there will be clips flooding social media of Lionel Messi in that pink Inter Miami kit doing something magical even still.

He's so impactful that FIFA concocted a way to backdoor Inter Miami into their new expanded Club World Cup, because they know his superstar presence will draw the eyes they wanted to the new competition and lend it a degree of credibility.

He is still the man.

So of course many, many people will still choose to have his name adorn their Barcelona shirt. It's probably not just tourists too. After all, what culer wouldn't dream to see Messi wear the blaugrana at least one more time?