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Lionel Messi, full name Lionel Andrés Messi, usually known as Leo Messi, is an Argentine-born football (soccer) player who has won a record-breaking seven Ballon d'Or honors as the world's best male player (2009-12, 2015, 2019, and 2021). In 2022, he helped Argentina win the World Cup organized by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).
Messi began playing football as a child and joined the youth team of Newell's Old Boys (a Rosario-based top-division football club) in 1995. Messi's extraordinary abilities drew the attention of major clubs on both sides of the Atlantic. Messi and his family moved to Barcelona when he was 13 years old, and he began playing for FC Barcelona's under-14 team. He scored 21 goals in 14 games for the youth team and swiftly advanced through the higher-level teams, making his FC Barcelona debut in a friendly match at the age of 16.
Club play
Messi, then 17, became the youngest official player and goal scorer in the Spanish La Liga (the country's highest league of football) in the 2004-05 season. On the field, despite being only 5 feet 7 inches (1.7 metres) tall and weighing 148 pounds (67 kg), he was strong, well-balanced, and flexible. Messi, who was naturally left-footed, quick, and precise with the ball, was a gifted pass distributor who could easily weave his way past dense defenses. In 2005, he was granted Spanish citizenship, which elicited mixed reactions from Barcelona's staunchly Catalan supporters. The following year, Messi and Barcelona won the Champions League (European club championship).
Messi's play steadily improved over the years, and by 2008, he was one of the world's most dominant players, coming second to Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo in the Ballon d'Or voting. In early 2009, Messi helped FC Barcelona achieve the club's first "treble" (winning three major European club titles in one season): the squad won the La Liga championship, the Copa del Rey (Spain's premier domestic cup), and the Champions League. He scored 38 goals in 51 games that season, and he defeated Ronaldo by a record margin in the voting for the Ballon d'Or and FIFA's World Player of the Year. Messi scored 34 goals in domestic games for Barcelona as they won La Liga again in 2009-10. As Europe's leading scorer, he collected the Golden Shoe trophy, as well as another Ballon d'Or (the prize was called as the FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2010-15).
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The following season, Messi led Barcelona to La Liga and Champions League crowns, allowing him to win an unprecedented third consecutive world player of the year award. He scored his 233rd goal for Barcelona in March 2012, becoming the club's all-time greatest scorer in La Liga play at the age of 24.
He concluded the 2011-12 season at Barcelona 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 historic season earned him the title of 2012 World Player of the Year, becoming Messi the first player to do it four times. His 46 La Liga goals in 2012-13 led the league, and Barcelona won another domestic top-flight title that season. He set the overall Barcelona goal record in 2014 when he scored his 370th goal for the club. During the same season, he set career scoring records in both the Champions League (72 goals) and La Liga (253).
Messi helped Barcelona win another treble in 2014-15, leading the squad with 43 goals scored during the season, earning him his fifth world player of the year award. In 2015-16, he scored 41 goals in all competitions for Barcelona, helping the club win La Liga and the Copa del Rey. Messi surpassed that total in 2016-17, leading Barcelona to another Copa del Rey title. In 2017-18, he scored 45 goals as Barcelona won the La Liga and Copa del Rey double. Messi scored 51 goals in all domestic competitions as Barcelona won another La Liga title in 2018-19.
He won his sixth Ballon d'Or and was voted FIFA's best male player of the year in late 2019. Barcelona won the Copa del Rey for the eighth time in Messi's career in the 2020-21 season. He became a free agent in 2021, and financial obstacles, some of which were caused by La Liga laws, kept him from re-signing with Barcelona. He left the club having achieved a number of records, most notably becoming the league's all-time leading goal scorer (474). Later that year, Messi signed with Paris St.-Germain, where he joined superstars Kylian Mbappé and Neymar, and he received his second Ballon d'Or.
International career
Messi's links to Argentina remained strong despite his dual citizenship and professional success in Spain, and he was a crucial player of different Argentine national teams beginning in 2005. He was a member of Argentina's winning FIFA World Youth Championship squad in 2005, represented the country in the 2006 World Cup, and scored two goals in five matches as Argentina won gold in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Argentina advanced to the World Cup quarterfinals in 2010, where they were ousted by Germany for the second time in World Cup competition. During the 2014 World Cup,
Messi put on a stunning performance, scoring four goals and nearly single-handedly driving Argentina through the group stage and into the knockout rounds, where Argentina advanced to the World Cup final for the first time in 24 years. Argentina lost that game 1-0 to Germany, but Messi was named the tournament's best player and received the Golden Ball trophy. He scored his 55th international goal during the 2016 Copa América Centenario event, breaking Gabriel Batistuta's Argentine scoring record.
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