A former FC Barcelona star has revealed which part of his game Lionel Messi would never work on during training sessions yet would still get perfect on most matchdays.
The Argentine is one of the most lethal free-kick takers in world football, but Nelson Semedo, who left Barcelona last year to join Wolverhampton Wanderers, has claimed the 33-year-old never practises this area of his game during training.
Asked recently how it was playing with Messi, the Portuguese right-back claimed the six-time Ballon d'Or winner did not need to work hard on the training ground to be clinical from direct set-pieces.
"Wow. I really don't have many words that can describe how good he is," he told the Daily Telegraph.
"You know what makes him even more amazing? I never once saw him take a free-kick in training, in all of the time I was there. I swear he never did!
"We always used to practise shooting from distance, but Messi never took a free-kick. For him, it was just natural.
"They say practice makes perfect – with him it was no practice, and it was still perfect!"
Messi has scored 55 free-kick goals in his career, but is still some way off Juninho Pernambucano's world record of 77 strikes from direct set-pieces.
