Lionel Messi (born 24 June 1987 in Rosario, Argentina) is an Argentine-born footballer who has won eight Ballon d’Or awards as the best player in the world (2009–12, 2015, 2019, 2023). In 2022, he helped Argentina win the FIFA World Cup.
Early Life
Lionel Messi started playing football as a boy and joined the youth team of Neville Old Boys (a top-flight football club based in Rosario) in 1995. Messi’s extraordinary skills attracted the attention of prestigious clubs on both sides of the Atlantic. At 13, Messi and his family moved to Barcelona, and he began playing for Barcelona’s under-14 team. He scored 21 goals in 14 matches for the youth team and quickly rose through the ranks until, at 16, he earned his unofficial debut in a friendly match with FC Barcelona.
Club play
In the 2004–05 season, Messi, then 17 years old, became the youngest player and official scorer in La Liga (the country’s highest football league). Though only 5 feet 7 inches (1.7 meters) tall and weighing 148 pounds (67 kg), he was strong, well-balanced, and versatile on the field. Messi was a natural left-footer, quick and accurate on the ball, delivered deep passes, and could weave his way through crowded defenses with ease. He was granted Spanish citizenship in 2005, an honor that was met with mixed feelings by Barcelona’s ardent Catalan supporters. The following year, Messi and Barcelona won the Champions League (European Club Championship).
Messi’s game continued to improve rapidly over the years, and by 2008 he was one of the most dominant players in the world, second only to Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo in the voting for the 2008 Ballon d’Or. In early 2009, Messi capped off an impressive 2008–09 season by helping FC Barcelona capture the club’s first “treble” (winning three major European titles in one season): the team won the La Liga championship, the Copa del Rey (the major domestic cup in Spain) and the Champions League title. He scored 38 goals in 51 matches during that season, beating Ronaldo for the Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year by a record margin.
During the 2009–10 season, Messi scored 34 goals in domestic matches as Barcelona repeated the Spanish League title. He won the Golden Boot as Europe’s top scorer and won another Ballon d’Or (the award was known as the FIFA Ballon d’Or in the 2010–2015 season).
The latest Barcelona series from La Liga and Champions League is one of the best TV series released in 2016 and is one of the best games I have ever had. In March 2012, Barcelona reached the age of 233, having spent 24 years in La Liga. He finished Barcelona’s 2011–12 season (which included another Copa del Rey win) with 73 goals in all competitions, breaking Gerd Müller’s 39-year-old record for goals in a single season in the UEFA Europa League.
His historic season saw him named the 2012 Player of the Year, making Messi the first player to win the award four times. His 46 La Liga goals led the league in the 2012–13 season, and Barcelona claimed another top-flight domestic championship that season. In 2014, he set Barcelona’s all-time scoring record when he scored his 370th goal as a member of the team. In the same year, he also broke scoring records playing in the Champions League (with 72 goals) and La Liga (with 253 goals).
Messi helped Barcelona to another treble during the 2014–15 season, leading the team in scoring with 43 goals during the season, leading to him receiving his fifth FIFA World Player of the Year award. He scored 41 goals in all competitions for Barcelona in the 2015-16 season, and during that season the club won the Spanish League title and the Copa del Rey. Messi topped Barcelona with 53 goals in the 2016-2017 season, leading the team to win the King’s Cup again. In the 2017–18 season, he scored 45 goals, and Barcelona once again won the La Liga and Copa del Rey double.
Messi scored 51 goals in all domestic competitions in 2018-19 as Barcelona won the La Liga championship again. At the end of 2019, he won the sixth Ballon d’Or of his career and was awarded the FIFA Men’s World Player of the Year award. In the 2020-21 season, Barcelona won the Copa del Rey, the seventh title for Messi in his career. He became a free agent in 2021, and financial problems – some of which were a result of La Liga rules – largely prevented him from re-signing with Barcelona. He left the club after setting several records. It is worth noting that he was the best scorer in the history of the league (474).
Later in 2021, Messi signed with Paris Saint-Germain, where he joined stars Kylian Mbappe and Neymar, and won another Ballon d’Or award in the same year. He helped Paris Saint-Germain win the French League title in each of his two seasons with the team. In 2023, Messi joined Inter Miami, which plays in Major League Soccer. He scored 20 goals in the 2024 season and was named the best player in the league.
International career
Despite his dual citizenship and professional success in Spain, Messi’s ties to his home country remain strong, and he has been a key member of various Argentine national teams since 2005. He played in Argentina’s winning squad for the 2005 World Youth Championship, and represented the country at the 2006 World Cup, winning a gold medal for scoring five goals for Argentina. Medal at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Messi helped Argentina reach the quarter-finals of the 2010 World Cup, where the team was eliminated from the World Cup for the second time in a row by Germany.
At the 2014 World Cup, Messi put in a stunning display, scoring four goals and almost single-handedly leading a crime-ridden Argentina team through the group stage and knockout stages, as Argentina reached the World Cup finals for the first time in 24 years. Argentina lost that match 1-0 to Germany, but Messi won the Ballon d’Or as best player of the tournament. During the 2016 Copa América Centenario, he scored his 55th international goal, breaking Gabriel Batistuta’s record set for Argentina.
After Argentina’s defeat in the Copa final – the team’s third consecutive final loss in a major tournament – Messi said he would retire from the national team, but his short-lived “retirement” lasted less than two months before he announced his return to the Argentina national team. At the 2018 World Cup, he helped Argentina reach the knockout stage, where they were eliminated by eventual champions France in their first match. After finishing third in the 2019 Copa America, Messi led Argentina to win the tournament two years later and won the Golden Ball.
His success continued at the 2022 World Cup. There he led Argentina to the final, where he scored twice – and scored a penalty during the penalty shootout – to help defeat France. Messi became the first player to win the World Cup Golden Ball twice. His impressive performance in the tournament was also instrumental in Messi winning his eighth Ballon d’Or in 2023.
Other activities and legal issues
Off the field, Messi was one of the biggest sports stars in the world. Aside from taking a salary from football, which was often the case, along with Ronaldo, one of the highest-paid players in all of professional sports, he was an extremely successful producer. pitchman, notably for the sportswear company Adidas. In 2013 Messi and his father (who handled his son’s finances) were charged with tax fraud and accused of using overseas shell companies to avoid paying €4.2 million in Spanish taxes on endorsement earnings.
Despite subsequently paying €5 million to the Spanish state, the pair were nevertheless ordered to stand trial on the charges in 2016. In July of that year, both Messi and his father were given 21-month suspended prison sentences (in Spain first-time offenders are given suspended sentences if the term is less than two years) and fined €2 million and €1.5 million respectively.
In 2025, US President Joe Biden awarded Massie the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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