Football God Lionel Messi Turns 29 years Today

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Lionel Andrés  Messi  born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for Spanish club Barcelona and the Argentina national team. Often considered the best player in the world and rated by many in the sport as the greatest of all time, Messi is the only football player in history to win five FIFA Ballons d’Or, four of which he won consecutively, and the first player to win three European Golden Shoes. With Barcelona he has won eight La Liga titles and four UEFA Champions League titles, as well as four Copas del Rey. A prolific goalscorer, Messi holds the records for most goals scored in La Liga, a La Liga season (50), a calendar year (91), a single season (73), a Champions League match (five), and most Champions League seasons (five).

Born and raised in central Argentina, Messi was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency as a child. At age 13, he relocated to Spain to join Barcelona, who agreed to pay for his medical treatment. After a fast progression through Barcelona’s youth academy, Messi made his competitive debut aged 17 in October 2004. Despite being injury-prone during his early career, he established himself as an integral player for the club within the next three years, finishing 2007 as a finalist for both the Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year award, a feat he repeated the following year. His first uninterrupted campaign came in the 2008–09 season, during which he helped Barcelona achieve the first treble in Spanish football. At 22 years old, Messi won the Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year award by record voting margins.

Early life

Lionel Andrés Messi was born on 24 June 1987 in Rosario, Santa Fe, the third of four children of Jorge Messi, a steel factory manager, and his wife Celia Cuccittini, who worked in a magnet manufacturing workshop. On his father’s side, he is of Italian and Spanish heritage, the great-grandson of immigrants from Marche and Catalonia, and on his mother’s side, he is of primarily Italian descent. Growing up in a tight-knit, football-loving family, “Leo” developed a passion for the sport from an early age, playing constantly with his older brothers, Rodrigo and Matías, and his cousins, Maximiliano and Emanuel Biancucchi, both of whom became professional footballers. At the age of four years, he joined local club Grandoli, where he was coached by his father, though his earliest influence as a player came from his maternal grandmother, Celia, who accompanied him to training and matches. He was greatly affected by her death, shortly before his eleventh birthday; since then, as a devout Catholic, he has celebrated his goals by looking up and pointing to the sky in tribute of his grandmother.

Barcelona

During the 2003–04 season, his fourth with Barcelona, Messi rapidly progressed through the club’s ranks, debuting for a record five teams in a single campaign. After being named player of the tournament in four international pre-season competitions with the Juveniles B, he played only one official match with the team before being promoted to the Juveniles A, where he scored 18 goals in 11 league games.^[25][26] Messi was then one of several youth players called up to strengthen a depleted first team during the international break. At 16 years, four months, and 23 days old, he made his first team debut when he came on in the 75th minute during a friendly against José Mourinho‘s Porto on 16 November 2003. His performance, creating two chances and a shot on goal, impressed the technical staff, and he subsequently began training daily with the club’s reserve side, Barcelona B, as well as weekly with the first team. After his first training session with the senior squad, Barça’s new star player, Ronaldinho, told his teammates that he believed the 16-year-old would become an even better player than himself. Ronaldinho soon befriended Messi, whom he called “little brother,” which greatly eased his transition into the first team

To gain further match experience, Messi joined Barcelona C in addition to the Juveniles A, playing his first game for the third team on 29 November. He helped save them from the relegation zone of the Tercera División, scoring five goals in 10 games, including a hat-trick in eight minutes during a Spanish Cup match while man-marked by Sevilla‘s Sergio Ramos. His progress was reflected in his first professional contract, signed on 4 February 2004, which lasted until 2012 and contained an initial buyout clause of €30 million. A month later, on 6 March, he made his debut for Barcelona B in the Segunda División B, and his buyout clause automatically increased to €80 million.He played five games with the B team that season but did not score. Physically he was weaker than his opponents, who were often much older and taller, and in training he worked on increasing his muscle mass and overall strength in order to be able to shake off defenders. Towards the end of the season, he returned to both youth teams, helping the Juveniles B win the league. He finished the campaign having scored for four of his five teams with a total of 36 goals in all official competitions.

During the 2004–05 season, Messi was a guaranteed starter for the B team, playing 17 games throughout the campaign and scoring on six occasions.Since his debut the previous November, he had not been called up to the first team again, but in October 2004, the senior players asked manager Frank Rijkaard to promote him.Since Ronaldinho already played on the left wing, Rijkaard moved Messi from his usual position onto the right flank, though initially against the player’s wishes, allowing him to cut into the centre of the pitch and shoot with his dominant left foot.Messi made his league debut during the next match on 16 October, against Espanyol, coming on in the 82nd minute. At 17 years, three months, and 22 days old, he was at the time the youngest player to represent Barcelona in an official competition. As a substitute player, he played only 77 minutes in nine matches for the first team that season, including his debut in the UEFA Champions League against Shakhtar Donetsk.^[35][38] He scored his first senior goal on 1 May 2005, against Albacete, from an assist by Ronaldinho, becoming at that time the youngest-ever scorer for the club^. Barcelona, in their second season under Rijkaard, won the league for the first time in six years.

On 24 June 2005, his 18th birthday, Messi signed his first contract as a senior team player. It made him a Barcelona player until 2010, two years less than his previous contract, but his buyout clause increased to €150 million. His breakthrough came two months later, on 24 August, during the Joan Gamper trophy, Barcelona’s pre-season competition. A starter for the first time, he gave a well-received performance against Fabio Capello‘s Juventus, receiving an ovation from the Camp Nou. While Capello requested to loan Messi, a bid to buy him came from Inter Milan, who were willing to pay his buyout clause and triple his wages. According to then-president Joan Laporta, it was the only time the club faced a real risk of losing Messi, but he ultimately decided to stay. On 16 September, his contract was updated for the second time in three months and extended to 2014.

While Barcelona began a gradual decline, the 19-year-old Messi established himself as one of the best players in the world during the 2006–07 campaign. Already an idol to the culés, the club’s supporters, he scored 17 goals in 36 games across all competitions. However, he continued to be plagued by major injuries; a metatarsal fracture sustained on 12 November 2006 kept him out of action for three months^. He recovered in time for the last 16 round of the Champions League against Liverpool, but was effectively marked out of the game; Barcelona, the reigning champions, were out of the competition.In the league, his goal contribution increased towards the end of the season; 11 of his 14 goals came from the last 13 games. On 10 March 2007, he scored his first hat-trick in a clásico, the first player to do so in 12 years, equalizing after each goal by Real Madrid to end the match in a 3–3 draw in extra time. His growing importance to the club was reflected in a new contract, signed that month, which greatly increased his wages.

After two unsuccessful seasons, Barcelona were in need of an overhaul, leading to the dismissals of Rijkaard and Ronaldinho. Upon the latter’s departure, Messi was given the number 10 shirt^. He signed a new contract in July 2008 on an annual salary of €7.8 million, becoming the club’s highest-paid player.Ahead of the new season, a major concern remained his frequent muscular injuries, which had left him side-lined for a total of eight months between 2006 and 2008. To combat the problem, the club implemented new training, nutrition, and lifestyle regimens, and assigned him a personal physiotherapist, who would travel with him during call-ups for the Argentina national team. As a result, Messi remained virtually injury-free during the next four years, allowing him to reach his full potential^.In his first uninterrupted campaign, the 2008–09 season, he scored 38 goals in 51 games, contributing alongside Eto’o and winger Thierry Henry to a total of 100 goals in all competitions, a record at the time for the club. Despite his injuries early in the year, his performances in 2008 saw him again voted runner-up for the Ballon d’Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year award, both times behind Cristiano Ronaldo.

As the season’s Champions League top scorer with nine goals, the youngest in the tournament’s history, Messi scored two goals and assisted two more to ensure a 4–0 quarter-final victory over Bayern Munich. He returned as a false nine during the final on 27 May in Rome, where they faced Manchester United. When he headed the ball over goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar to make the end score 2–0, Barcelona were champions of Europe, achieving the first treble in the history of Spanish football. Their success was reflected in a new contract, signed on 18 September, which committed Messi to the club through 2016 with a new buyout clause of €250 million, while his salary increased to €12 million. Barça’s prosperity continued into the second half of 2009, as they became the first club to achieve the sextuple, winning six top-tier trophies in a single year.After victories in the Supercopa de España and UEFA Super Cup in August, they won the FIFA Club World Cup against Estudiantes on 19 December, with Messi scoring the winning 2–1 goal with his chest. At 22 years old, Messi won the Ballon d’Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year award, both times by the greatest voting margin in each trophy’s history.

2010–11: Continued success

Unsatisfied with his position on the right wing, Messi resumed playing as a false nine in early 2010, beginning with a Champions League last 16 round match against Stuttgart. After a first-leg draw, they won the second leg 4–0 with two goals and an assist from Messi. At that point, he effectively became the tactical focal point of Guardiola’s team, and his goalscoring rate increased. Messi scored a total of 47 goals in all competitions that season, equal to Ronaldo‘s club record from the 1996–97 campaign. He notably scored all of his side’s four goals in the Champions League quarter-final against Arsène Wenger‘s Arsenal on 6 April, a rare achievement, while becoming Barcelona’s all-time top scorer in the competition. Although they were eliminated in the Champions League semi-finals by the eventual champions, Inter Milan, Messi finished the season as top scorer, with eight goals, for the second consecutive year. As league top scorer in Spain and Europe with 34 goals, again tying Ronaldo’s record, he helped Barcelona win La Liga with only a single defeat.

Towards the end of the season, Barcelona played four controversial clásicos in the span of 18 days. A league match on 16 April ended in a draw after a penalty from Messi, securing their third consecutive La Liga title. In addition to his 31 goals, Messi was the league’s top assist provider with 18 assists. After they lost the Copa del Rey final four days later, he scored both goals in their 2–0 win in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals, the second of which—a dribble past three players—was acclaimed as one of the best ever in the competition. Although he did not score, he was again important in the second-leg draw that sent them through to the Champions League final, where they faced Manchester United in a repeat of the final two years earlier. As the competition’s top scorer for the third consecutive year, with 12 goals, Messi gave a man-of-the-match performance at Wembley on 28 May, scoring the match-winning goal of their 3–1 victory. He finished the season with 53 goals and 24 assists in all competitions, becoming Barcelona’s all-time single-season top scorer and the first player in Spanish football to reach the 50-goal benchmark.

As Messi developed into a combination of a number eight (a creator), a nine (scorer), and a 10 (assistant), he scored an unprecedented 73 goals and provided 29 assists in all club competitions during the 2011–12 season, producing a hat-trick or more on 10 occasions. He began the campaign by helping Barcelona win both the Spanish and European super cups; in the Supercopa de España, he scored three times to achieve a 5–4 aggregate victory over Real Madrid, overtaking Raúl as the competition’s all-time top scorer with eight goals.^[110][111] At the close of the year, on 18 December, he scored twice in the FIFA Club World Cup final, a 4–0 victory over Santos, winning the Golden Ball as the best player of the tournament, as he had done two years previously. For his efforts in 2011, he again received the FIFA Ballon d’Or, becoming only the fourth player in history to win the Ballon d’Or three times, after Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini, and Marco van Basten.Additionally, he won the inaugural UEFA Best Player in Europe Award, a revival of the old-style Ballon d’Or. By then, Messi was widely considered one of the best players in history, alongside legends like Diego Maradona and Pelé.

Performances

• La Liga top goalscorer: 2009–10, 2011–12, 2012–13
• La Liga top assist provider: 2010–11, 2014–15, 2015–16
• Copa del Rey top goalscorer: 2008–09, 2010–11, 2013–14, 2015–16
• UEFA Champions League top goalscorer: 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2014–15
• UEFA Champions League top assist provider: 2011–12, 2014–15
• FIFA Club World Cup top goalscorer: 2011
• FIFA World Youth Championship top goalscorer: 2005
• Copa América top assist provider: 2011, 2015

Records

As of 21 June 2016

Honours and achievements

Club

• La Liga: 2004–05, 2005–06, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2012–13, 2014–15, 2015–16
• Copa del Rey: 2008–09, 2011–12, 2014–15, 2015–16
• Supercopa de España: 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013
• UEFA Champions League: 2005–06, 2008–09, 2010–11, 2014–15
• UEFA Super Cup: 2009, 2011, 2015
• FIFA Club World Cup: 2009, 2011, 2015

International

• FIFA World Youth Championship: 2005
• Olympic Gold Medal: 2008
• Runner-up FIFA World Cup: 2014
• Runner-up Copa América: 2007, 2015

Individual

Awards

International

As of 21 June 2016

Career statistics Club

As of 22 May 2016