Lionel Andrés Messi (; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for Barcelona and the Argentina national team. He has won a record six Ballon d’Or awards, and six European Golden Shoes. Messi holds the records for most goals in La Liga, a La Liga and European league season, and the UEFA Champions League. He is considered to be one of the greatest players of all time. Messi has won 34 trophies during his professional career, including ten La Liga titles, four Champions League titles and six Copas del Rey.
About Lionel Messi in brief
Lionel Andrés Messi (; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for Barcelona and the Argentina national team. He has won a record six Ballon d’Or awards, and six European Golden Shoes. A prolific goalscorer and creative playmaker, Messi holds the records for most goals in La Liga, a La Liga and European league season, and the UEFA Champions League. He is considered to be one of the greatest players of all time. Messi has won 34 trophies during his professional career, including ten La Liga titles, four Champions League titles and six Copas del Rey. He was named the world’s highest-paid footballer by France Football in 2009 and Forbes in 2019. In February 2020, he was awarded the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year, thus becoming the first footballer and also the first team sport athlete to win the award. His style of play as a diminutive, left-footed dribbler drew comparisons with his compatriot Diego Maradona, who described Messi as his successor. At youth level, he won the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship, finishing the tournament with both the Golden Ball and Golden Shoe, and an Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He became the youngest Argentine to play and score in a FIFA World Cup during the 2006 edition, and reached the final of the 2007 Copa América, where he was named young player of the tournament. As the squad’s captain from August 2011, he led Argentina to three consecutive finals: the 2014 World Cup, for which he won Golden Ball, and the 2015 and 2016 Copas américa.
After announcing his international retirement in 2016, he reversed his decision and led his country to qualification for the 2018 World Cup. In 2018, he assumed the captaincy of Barcelona in 2018, and in 2019 he secured a record sixth Ballon D’Or. An Argentine international, Messi is his country’s all-time leading goalscoreer. His mother is of Italian and Spanish descent from the Adriatic Marche region of Italy and Catalonia, and he has primarily Italian ancestry. At the age of four he joined local club Grandoli, where his earliest influence came from his maternal grandmother, Emanuel Biancucchi. At age 13, he joined Barcelona and made his competitive debut aged 17 in October 2004. He established himself as an integral player for the club within the next three years, and helped Barcelona achieve the first treble in Spanish football in 2008–09. In the 2011–12 season, he set the La Liga. and European records for the most goals scored in a single season, while establishing himself as Barcelona’s top scorer. The following two seasons, Messi finished second for the Ballon. d’or behind Cristiano Ronaldo, before regaining his best form during the 2014–15 campaign, leading Barcelona to a historic second treble. In 2012, he became the first Barcelona player to surpass USD 1 billion in career earnings. Later that year, Messi became the second footballer to surpass $1 billion in Career earnings.
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