On This Day: Messi made 500th appearance for Barca; Coutinho's last Reds game

Hi all, welcome to All Football's On This Day! Let's find out what happened today (December 30th) in football history. If you have more stories and news that happened on this day in history, please post them in the comment area and share them with AFers!

On this day in 2015, Messi made his 500th appearance for Barca

Lionel Messi scores on his 500th Barcelona appearance as Barcelona ease past Real Betis 4-0 at Camp Nou. In his first 500 games at Barca, he scored 425 goals in total.

By the way, Barca finish the year of 2015 with 180 goals in all competitions, a Spanish record.

On this day in 2017, Coutinho played his last game at Liverpool

Coutinho played his final reds game as they beat Leicester City 2-1 at Anfield. Jamie Vardy opened the scoring early, Salah bagged a brace after the break to secure the victory.

On January 6th in 2018, Barcelona announced the signing of Philippe Coutinho from Liverpool for a fee that could reach £142m.

On this day in 2009, no Englishman in starting XI in an EPL match

On 30 December 2009, Arsenal won at Portsmouth, 1-4, in a match where neither side's starting XI included an Englishman. It was the first time that had happened in the English top flight.

The most-represented nation on the pitch that day was France, with a total of 7 (5 for Arsenal and 2 for Portsmouth). An additional two players--Portsmouth's Hassan Yebda and Nadir Belhadj--were born in France, though both play internationally for Algeria. The remaining players were from Bosnia, Iceland, the Republic of Ireland, Israel, South Africa, Scotland, Ghana, Spain, Belgium, Wales, Cameroon, Russia, and Croatia.

On this day in 1937, former England goalkeeper Gordon Banks was born

Regarded as on of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he made 628 appearances during his 15 year career and won 73 caps for his country, playing in every game in England’s 1966 World Cup victory.

His most famous save is preventing a Pelé header in the 1970 World Cup, which is considered as one of the best save in the history of World Cup.

On this day in 2000, Ian Wright received an MBE

Shortly after his retirement from playing in 2000, Wright was awarded an MBE for his services to football.