Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi was born on 24 June 1987, is an Argentine former professional footballer counted amongst the best players in the world in football history. Messi is only the player in history to win Five FIFA Ballons d’Or and He also wins three European Golden Shoes. In his playing career, he shattered many world records but current records for most goals scored in a La Liga season (50), a calendar year (91), a single season (73), and A Champions League Match (5), among several others.

Lionel Messi belongs to a family who loves football and lives in central Argentina likewise he developed a passion for football in childhood. At the age of 13, he joined the youth team of Newell’s Old Boys as a young boy and began playing for FC Barcelona’s under-14 team. A 17-year-old, Lionel Messi quickly established himself as an integral player for the Barcelona club. Messi’s first success came when he helped Barcelona to achieve the first treble in Spanish football in the 2008-09 season. In the ensuing years, he proceeded to establish himself as Barcelona’s all-time top scorer and also Argentina’s all-time leading scorer with 55 goals in 112 matches.

Childhood & Early Life

• Lionel Messi has three siblings, two elder brothers Rodrigo and Matias, and a sister, Maria Sol his father was a factory steel worker, and his mother was employed as a part-time cleaner.
• Messi started playing for the Grandoli, a local club coached by his father at the age of 15 and He was playing for Newell’s Old Boys at the age he turned in eight. The group is known as ‘The Machine of 87’.
• Sadly, he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency when he was eleven and due to his immensely talented, Messi was not offered help by the local clubs, who were not willing to pay for his treatment.
• The sporting director of FC Barcelona came to his aid and promised to offer help to Messi by paying for his medical bills only if the latter moved to Spain then he was enrolled at Barcelona’s youth academy.

Career Life of Lionel Messi

• • In the year 2000 Messi’s career kickstarted when he played for the junior system ranks and within a short period, he became the only player to play for five different teams.
  • Lionel Messi’s excellence at the game was visible from the fact that he quickly moved through the junior system ranks on October 16, 2004, to make a league debut against RCD Espanyol.
  • On May 1, 2005, his first goal came the following year against Albacete and Messi created history by being the youngest to ever score in a La Liga game for Barcelona.
  • In September 2005, he received Spanish citizenship it possible for Messi to make a debut in the Championship League.
  • Lionel Messi’s first outing at the Champions League was against Italian club Udinese and through entering the field as a substitute, he played amazing soccer with Ronaldinho, the two sharing good chemistry over passing and receiving the ball.
  • Messi managed to strike six goals out of his 17 league appearances however, a muscle tear in his right thigh led to his premature exit from the league, which Barcelona eventually won as champions of Spain and Europe.
  • Messi found himself listed in the eleven-member squad and the 26 outings, he successfully netted the ball fourteen times.
  • Barcelona had recorded another win at the 2009 Club World Cup beating Estudiantes, thus totalling their title won in the year to six before the year’s end.

For the second time, Lionel Messi is the world’s highest paid athlete in 2022 according to @Forbes, read more here https://t.co/LweKdaaL8D pic.twitter.com/qKj1kCYuIG

— Asif Burhan (@AsifBurhan) May 11, 2022

• Barcelona faced their arch-rivals Real Madrid in the 2010 Copa del final and the champions lost their game to Real Madrid, Lionel Messi was, however, the joint top-scorer of the tournament along with Cristiano Ronaldo, with 7 goals.
• Barcelona beat Real Madrid 2-0 in the Semifinals, with Messi scoring both goals in the Champions League. Messi scored the winning goal to give Barcelona their third title in six years and fourth overall in the final too and he also finished the 2010–11 season with 53 goals and 24 assists in all competitions combined.
• Again history was created when Messi becomes the first player to score five goals in a UEFA Champions League match.
• Messi’s goal count rested at 91 for the calendar year which was the highest ever, surpassing Gerd Muller’s 85-goal haul in 2012 and the performance of Messi led to Barcelona renewing its contract with this ace footballer until the year 2018.
• By the end of the year, he had successfully broken three longstanding records in 2014 and he also scored a hat-trick against Sevilla in November which made him the all-time top scorer in La Liga.
• Lionel Messi gave a scintillating performance along with teammates Luis Suárez, and Neymar to score a total of 122 goals in all competitions that season, a record in Spanish football. Messi himself scored 58 of the 122 goals in the 2015 season.
• In January 2016, Messi scored two goals and assisted the other two in a 4–1 derby win over Espanyol at Camp Nou in the first leg of the Round of 16 of the 2015–16 Copa del Rey and in February the same year, Messi reached his 300th league goal in a 1–3 away win against Sporting Gijon.
• On 17 April 2016, he scored his 500th senior career goal for club and country in Barcelona’s 2–1 home loss to Valencia and he scored a total of 41 goals and provided 23 assists in the 2015-16 seasons.
• On 26 June 2016, he announced his retirement from international football following Argentina’s loss to Chile in the final of Copa América Centenario.
• It was announced that Messi has reversed his decision to retire and will be part of Argentina’s 2018 World Cup campaign on 12 August 2016.
• Lionel Messi was part of the Argentinian team for the friendlies against Venezuela and Morocco in March 2019.
• On March 22, 2019, he made his international return in a friendly match against Venezuela in Madrid. Argentina lost the match 3–1.

Philanthropic Works

In 2007, Lionel Messi established the “Leo Messi Foundation”, a charity supporting access to education

n and health care for vulnerable children this was in response to Messi’s medical ailments that he faced as a child, and the Lionel Messi foundation works towards providing children diagnosed with illnesses treatment in Spain funds covering the transport, hospital and recuperation costs and the funds collected by the organization and Messi’s effort with a little aid by Herbalife. In 2010, lionel Messi was the goodwill ambassador for UNICEF in and he also worked toward supporting children’s rights. He donated a sum of €600,000 for the restoration of a children’s hospital by the name Victor J Vilela Children’s Hospital, in his hometown of Rosario, Argentina in 2013, and these donated amounts were used in restoring the oncology unit of the hospital and paying for doctors to travel to Barcelona for training.

Awards & Achievements

Lionel Messi’s excellence in the field has been lauded the world over through the numerous awards, honours, and achievements that he has been bestowed with and he has won the prestigious Ballon d’Or five times in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2015. He also won several awards some of them are World Soccer Young Player of the Year, FIFPro World Young Player of the Year, and Copa America Young Player of the Tournament He has been awarded as the top goalscorer on numerous occasions, IFFHS World’s Top Goal Scorer, UEFA Champions League Top Goalscorer, FIFA U-20 World Cup Top Goa 2012 Messi was honoured with the European Golden Shoe thrice. In 2009 and 2011, he won the FIFA Club World Cup Golden Ball twice. In the year 2005, he was tagged as the European Golden Boy.

Family & Personal Life

Lionel Messi had quite a couple of romantic associations before he got steady with his wife Antonella Roccuzzo and he was first linked with Macarena Lemos, a female from his hometown Rosario, whom Messi was introduced to by the former’s father while he was recovering from his injury before the 2006 World Cup. He was first seen with his wife Roccuzzo at a carnival in Sitges after the Barcelona-Espanyol derby a fellow native of Rosario, Roccuzzo gave birth to their first child, Thiago on November 2, 2012, and second child Mateo, on September 11, 2015. On 30 June 2017, he married Roccuzzo after several years of being in a relationship. Lionel Messi and Roccuzzo’s wedding was held at a luxury hotel named Hotel City Center in Rosario.

Trivia

Lionel Messi’s first-ever contract was not on any official stamp paper or bond paper. In place of, Carles Rexach, the sporting director of FC Barcelona, provided him to play for the club in an obligation written on a paper napkin! Rexach was so tough that he wanted to make a contract then and there and also he was offered to play for Spain’s U-20 team at the international level. In 2004, ever since his league debut for Barcelona, he has through his distinction at the game and complete know-how of the technique, created numerous records. Presently, Messi is Barcelona’s top scorer in La Liga, UEFA Champions League, European, and international competitions. He has also the most hat-tricks scored by any Barcelona player and he also holds the Guinness World Record for most goals in a calendar year: 91 goals. Besides, Messi is the only world player to score in 19 consecutive league matches, his goal count for the same being 30 and he has a style that is similar to Maradona. Messi replicated Maradona’s goal style with perfection in the 2006-07 seasons and his actions have shown the same character as that of Maradona, who himself declared this talented footballer as his successor over a year.

Top 8 Facts You Did Not Know About Lionel Messi

• Spite of, Lionel Messi has Spanish citizenship, he is of Italian origin and his paternal family is from the Italian city of Ancona in the Marche region.
• Lionel Messi shares the same birthplace, Rosario, as the Argentine revolutionary, Che Guevara.
• Messi still maintains close connections with the people of Rosario, his hometown and he is also known as the international ambassador of Rosario.
• Messi has his version of the Hand of God goal in a match against Recreativo de Huelva, he also scored a goal with his hand on October 4, 2006.
• Every Year since 2010, ‘SportsPro’ has cited him as one of the world’s most marketable athletes.
• Messi was the first player to exceed the €40 million benchmark, he is one of the world’s highest-paid footballers.
• Lionel Messi has his mother’s face tattooed on his left shoulder.
• Messi is the only player with four FIFA Ballon d’Or awards and three European Golden Shoe awards and also won the Golden Ball award twice and the European Golden Boy award.

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