Lionel Messi
>
Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi Cuccittini (Spanish pronunciation: [ljoˈnel anˈdɾes ˈmesi] (
listen); born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays for Spanish club FC Barcelona and the Argentina national team. He is a forward and serves as captain for Argentina.
listen); born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays for Spanish club FC Barcelona and the Argentina national team. He is a forward and serves as captain for Argentina.
By the age of 21, Messi had received Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations. The following year, in 2009, he won his first Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards. He followed this up by winning the inaugural FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2010, and then again in 2011 and 2012. He also won the 2010–11 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award. At the age of 24, Messi became Barcelona's all-time top scorer in all official club competitions. In September 2014 he scored his 400th senior career goal for club and country aged just 27. In November 2014, Messi became the all-time top scorer in La Liga, and the all-time leading goalscorer in the UEFA Champions League.
Often considered the best player in the world and rated by some in the sport as the greatest of all time,[3][4][5][6][7][8] Messi is the first football player in history to win fourFIFA/Ballons d'Or, all of which he won consecutively, and the first to win three European Golden Shoe awards. With Barcelona, Messi has won seven La Ligas, threeCopas del Rey, six Supercopas de España, four UEFA Champions Leagues, two UEFA Super Cups and two FIFA Club World Cups.
Messi is the only player to top-score in four consecutive Champions League seasons, and also holds the record for the most hat-tricks scored in the competition with five. In March 2012, he made Champions League history by becoming the first player to score five goals in one match. In the 2011–12 season, Messi set the European record for most goals scored in a season with 73 goals, set the goalscoring record in a single La Liga season with 50 goals, and became the second player ever to score in six different official competitions in one season after Pedro.[9] In February 2013 he scored his 300th Barcelona goal. On 30 March 2013, Messi scored in his 19th consecutive La Liga game, becoming the first footballer in history to net in consecutive matches against every team in a professional football league. He extended his record scoring streak to 21 consecutive league matches. In March 2014, with a hat-trick against Real Madrid, Messi became the player with the most goals and most hat-tricks in the history of El Clásico. In October 2014, Messi, aged 27, became the youngest player to score 250 goals in La Liga. In November 2014, Messi scored a hat-trick against Sevilla to reach 253 La Liga goals, becoming the all-time top scorer in La Liga. In May 2015, he scored his 77th Champions League goal to become its all-time leading scorer.
Messi helped Argentina win the 2005 FIFA U-20 World Cup, finishing as both the best player and the top scorer (with six goals). In 2006, he became the youngest Argentine to play and score in the FIFA World Cup, and won a runners-up medal at the Copa América in 2007, in which he was named young player of the tournament. In2008, he won an Olympic Gold Medal with the Argentina Olympic football team. At the 2014 World Cup, he led Argentina to the final, winning four consecutive Man of the Match awards in the process, and received the Golden Ball award as the best player of the tournament. In 2013, SportsPro rated him the second-most marketable athlete in the world.[10] His playing style and stature have drawn comparisons to compatriot Diego Maradona, who himself declared Messi his "successor"
Early life
Messi was born on 24 June 1987[2] in Rosario, Santa Fe Province, to parents Jorge Horácio Messi, a factory steel worker, and Celia María Cuccittini, a part-time cleaner.[12][13][14][15] His paternal great-grandfather, Angelo Messi originates from the Italian city of Recanati and emigrated to Argentina in 1883.[16][17] He has two older brothers, Rodrigo and Matías, and a sister, María Sol.[18] At the age of five, Messi started playing football for Grandoli, a local club coached by his father Jorge.[19] In 1995, Messi switched to Newell's Old Boys who were based in his home city Rosario.[19] He became part of a local youth team that lost only one match in the next four years and became locally known as "The Machine of '87", the year of their birth.[20]
At the age of 11, Messi was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency.[21] Local team River Plate showed interest in Messi's progress, but were not willing to pay for treatment for his condition, which cost $900 a month.[15] Carles Rexach, the sporting director of FC Barcelona, was made aware of his talent as Messi had relatives in Lleida in western Catalonia, and Messi and his father were able to arrange a trial with the team.[15] Rexach, with no other paper at hand, offered Messi a contract written on a paper napkin.[22][23] Barcelona offered to pay Messi's medical bills on the condition that he moved to Spain. Messi and his father duly moved to Barcelona, where Messi enrolled in the club's youth academy.[19][23]
Barcelona
2000–04 junior years
Messi played in FC Barcelona's junior Infantil B and Cadete B and A teams from 2000 to 2003, scoring 37 goals in 30 matches in Cadete A. He was nearly released from the club in 2003 because of financial constraints, but his youth coaches convinced management to keep him (Cesc Fàbregas was released during this purge).[24] Season 2003–04 saw him on a record five different teams:[25] he started one match in Juvenil B (one goal) and got promoted to Juvenil A (14 matches, 21 goals). Messi made his official debut for the first team on 16 November 2003, in a friendly match against Porto,[26] before debuting for the FC Barcelona C team (Tercera División) on 29 November 2003 and for FC Barcelona B (Segunda División B) on 6 March 2004. He played for both the C and B teams during the season (10 matches, five goals and five matches, zero goals, respectively).[27][28][29]
Less than a year after his start, manager Frank Rijkaard gave him his league debut against RCD Espanyol on 16 October 2004.[30][31][32] At 17 years and 114 days, Messi was the third-youngest player ever to play for Barcelona and youngest club player to play in La Liga, a record that would be broken by Bojan Krkić in September 2007. When he scored his first senior goal for the club against Albacete Balompié on 1 May 2005, Messi was 17 years, ten months and seven days old, becoming the youngest to ever score in a La Liga game for Barcelona,[33] until the record was also broken by Krkić in 2007, scoring from a Messi assist.[34] Messi said about his former coach Rijkaard: "I'll never forget the fact that he launched my career, that he had confidence in me while I was only 16 or 17."[35] During the season, Messi played also in Barcelona B (Segunda División B) scoring six goals in 17 matches.