Lionel Messi is a soccer player with splendid agility, matchless stamina, bulleting speed and craftsmanship of game plan by all means. He is an ace player who plays with instinctive flair, relentless attacking style, natural dexterity and avid keenness and displays an immaculate and impressive display for his millions of followers and lovers around the globe. He has been an integral part of Paris Saint-German and the Argentina national team and is a living legend of contemporary Soccer globally.
Messi was born on June 24, 1987, in Rosario, Argentina. Being a young and ambitious boy, he used to play with his two older brothers’ friends with self-conviction and fearless approach. It was his sheer talent and fervor, he was recruited to join the youth system of Newell’s Old Boys, a Rosario-based club just at the age of 8 years.
Comparatively with his age-group kids, Messi was highly talented and committed but it was eventually diagnosed by doctors that he was suffering from a hormone deficiency that restricted his growth. His parents, Jorge and Ceclia, decided on a regimen of nightly growth-hormone injections for their son, though it soon proved impossible to pay several hundred dollars per month for the medication. This was the most crucial time for his parents to face this financial crunch.
Passing through the toughest time, Messi was offered the chance to train at soccer powerhouse FC Barcelona’s youth academy, La Masia, and have his medical bills covered by the team just at the age of 13 years. His family picked up and moved across the Atlantic to make a new home in Spain. Although he was often homesick in his new country, he moved quickly through the junior system ranks.
Evolving through drastic phases, Messi’s short stature, speed, unyielding attacking style and self-belief were the salient features made sports experts to compare him with another famous Argentinian footballer, Diego Maradona in his early age.
Regarding his innumerable awards and distinctions, he has established records for goals scored and won individual awards en route to worldwide recognition as one of the best players in soccer. He earned renown as one of the greatest players in history, helping his club win more than two dozen league titles and tournaments. In 2012, he set a record for most goals in a calendar year, and in 2019, he was named Europe’s Ballon d’Or winner for the 7th time (2009–12, 2015, 2019 & 2021).
Statistically, during 2004–05 season Messi, at the age of 17, became the youngest official player and goal scorer in the Spanish La Liga. Though only 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighing 148 pounds (67 kg), he was strong, well-balanced, and versatile on the field. Naturally left-footed, quick, and precise in control of the ball, he was a keen pass distributor and could readily thread his way through packed defenses. In 2005, he was granted Spanish citizenship, an honor greeted with mixed feelings by the fiercely Catalan supporters of Barcelona. The next year Messi and Barcelona won the Champions League title.
Incessantly and unending learning curve, Messi’s play continued to rapidly improve over the years, and by 2008 he was one of the most dominant players in the world, finishing second to Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo in the voting for the 2008 FIFA World Player of the Year. In early 2009, he capped off a spectacular 2008–09 season by helping FC Barcelona capture the club’s first “treble” : 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 bested Ronaldo in the balloting for FIFA World Player of the Year honors by a record margin. During the 2009–10 season, he scored 34 goals in domestic games as Barcelona repeated as La Liga champions. He also earned the Golden Shoe award as Europe’s leading scorer, and he was named the 2010 world player of the year.
Messi’s meritorious and unruffled efforts never get ended. He led Barcelona to La Liga and Champions League titles the following season, which helped him capture an unprecedented third consecutive world player of the year award. 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 with 73 goals in all competitions, breaking Gerd Müller’s 39-year-old record for single-season goals in a major European football league. His landmark season led to his being named the 2012 world player of the year, which made him the first player to win the honor four times. His 46 La Liga goals in 2012–13 led the league, and Barcelona captured another domestic top-division championship that season. 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).
It is true to say that Messi and Barcelona have been coined together .He helped Barcelona capture another treble during the 2014–15 season, leading the team with 43 goals scored over the course of the campaign, which resulted in his fifth world player of the year honor. He scored 41 goals across all competitions for Barcelona in 2015–16, and the club won the La Liga title and the Copa del Rey during that season. He 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. He scored 51 goals across all domestic competitions in 2018–19 as Barcelona won another La Liga championship. In December 2019 he won his sixth career Ballon d’Or. 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.
Despite his dual citizenship and professional success in Spain, Messi’s ties with his homeland remained strong, and he was a key member of various Argentine national teams from 2005. He played on Argentina’s victorious 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship squad, represented the country in the 2006 World Cup, and scored two goals in five matches as Argentina swept to the gold medal at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. He helped Argentina reach the 2010 World Cup quarterfinals, where the team was eliminated by Germany for the second consecutive time in World Cup play. At the 2014 World Cup, he put on a amazing display, scoring four goals and almost single-handedly propelling an offense-deficient Argentina team through the group stage and into the knockout rounds, where Argentina then advanced to the World Cup final for the first time in 24 years. Argentina lost that contest 1–0 to Germany, but he nevertheless won the Golden Ball award as the tournament’s best player.
During the 2016 Copa América Centenario tournament, he netted his 55th international goal to break Gabriel Batistuta’s Argentine scoring record. After Argentina was defeated in the Copa final—the team’s third consecutive finals loss in a major tournament—he said that he was quitting the national team, but his short-lived “retirement” lasted less than two months before he announced his return to the Argentine team. At the 2018 World Cup, he helped an overmatched Argentine side reach the knockout stage, where they were eliminated by eventual champion France in their first match. After a third-place finish at the 2019 Copa América, he led Argentina to victory in the tournament two years later, and he received the Golden Ball award.
Being one of the biggest athletic stars in the world, Messi’s earning as footballer along with Ronaldo’s is one of the two largest athletes’ salaries in all professional sports. In 2022, it is reported that he earned 29 billion (Pakistan Currency) as one of the greatest footballer of all times.
Apart from glorified career, Messi also passed through certain upheavals. In 2013, he and his father 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, Messi and his father were each given suspended 21-month prison sentences (first-time offenders in Spain are given suspended sentences if the duration is under two years) and were fined €2 million and €1.5 million, respectively.
The FIFA 2022 World Cup has been very absorbing and uncertain in its results with smiles and tears of the lovers. It is true that Lionel Messi’s near superhuman powers are undoubtedly declining as he plays into the twilight of his career, but the little magician still has the ability to deliver moments of genius just when his country needs him most. Through excellent display of soccer, he has been providing the most memorable moments to a nation of 45 million people (Argentina) that consider him not less than a deity.
Statistically, Lionel Messi has played 1002 international matches and scored 791 goals, assisted Goal scoring 340, won 35 trophies for Barcelona Club, 7 Europe’s Ballon d best footballer Award, PSG French title, COPA America 2021 Cup and infinite distinguished titles.
He has recently said that “Argentina’s match against France in the World Cup final will be his last World Cup appearance: “There’s a lot of years until the next one and I don’t think I have it in me and finishing like this is best.”
Most significantly, he has one final chance to lift the trophy he yearns the most after 1986 World cup Win on this Sunday and cherish his lifelong and the entire nation’s dream of guiding Argentina to World Cup glory.
