About Him
Lionel Messi, in full Lionel Andrés Messi, also called Leo Messi, (born June 24, 1987, Argentina), is a soccer player who received a record-setting seven Ballon d’Or awards as the world’s top male player (2009–12, 2015, 2019, and 2021). Recently he has helped Argentina to win FIFA World Cup where he has won best player of the tournament also.

Early Life

Messi started playing football as a boy and in 1995 joined the youth team of Newell’s Old Boys (a Rosario-based top-division football club). Messi’s phenomenal game grabbed the attention of significant clubs on both sides of the Atlantic. At age 13 Messi and his family relocated to Barcelona, and he began playing for FC Barcelona’s under – 14 team. He scored 21 goals in 14 games for the junior team, and he quickly graduated through the higher-level teams until at age 16 he was given his informal debut with FC Barcelona in a friendly match.

About His Career

• In 2004–05 season Messi at the age of 17 became the youngest official player and goal scorer in the Spanish La Liga (the country’s highest division of football).


• In 2005 ,he was granted Spanish citizenship, an honour greeted with mixed feelings by the fiercely Catalan supporters of Barcelona. The next year Messi and Barcelona won the Champions League (the European club championship) title. Messi’s play continued to rapidly improve over the years, and by 2008 he became one of the most dominant players in the world.


• In early 2009 Messi capped off a spectacular 2008–09 season by helping FC Barcelona capture the club’s first “treble” (winning three major European club titles in one season): the team won the La Liga championship, the Copa del Rey (Spain’s major domestic cup), and the Champions League title. He scored 38 goals in 51 matches during that season, and he excelled Ronaldo as the balloting for both the Ballon d’Or and Fifa’s world player of the year by a record margin.


• In 2009–10, Messi scored 34 goals in domestic games as Barcelona repeated as La Liga champions. He earned the Golden Shoe award as Europe’s leading scorer, and he received another Ballon d’Or (the award was known as the FIFA Ballon d’Or in 2010–15).


• In March 2012 he netted his 233rd goal for Barcelona, becoming the club’s all-time leading scorer in La Liga play when only 24 years old. He finished Barcelona’s 2011–12 season (which included another Copa del Rey win) with 73 goals in all competitions, breaking 39-year-old record for single-season goals in a major European football league.


• In 2014 he set the overall Barcelona goal record when he scored his 370th goal as a member of the team. That same year he also broke the career scoring records for play in both the Champions League (with 72 goals) and La Liga (with 253 goals).


• Messi topped that with 53 goals for Barcelona in 2016–17, leading the team to another Copa del Rey title. In 2017–18 he scored 45 goals, and Barcelona won the La Liga–Copa del Rey double once again.


• Messi scored 51 goals across all domestic competitions in 2018–19 as Barcelona won another La Liga championship.


• In late 2019 he won his sixth career Ballon d’Or and was named FIFA’s best male player of the year. In the 2020–21 season, Barcelona claimed the Copa del Rey title, the seventh of Messi’s career.


• He became a free agent in 2021, and financial issues some of which were the result of La Liga rules largely prevented him from re-signing with Barcelona. He left the club having set a number of records; notably, he was the leading goal scorer in the league’s history (474).


• Later in 2021 he signed with Paris St.-Germain, and that year he received another Ballon d’Or.


• In 2022, Messi has showed an amazing play in the FIFA World Cup and scored 2 goals against France and lifted the cup.