Lionel Messi

Lionel Andrés Messi (aka Leo, Lio, La Pulga, La Pulga Atómica, El Mesías) was born on June 24, 1987 in the Argentine city of Rosario. He grew up with three brothers in a working class neighborhood called General Las Heras. At 5 years of age, he started playing at the Grandoli, a small neighborhood club where his family was very involved. When he turned 8, Leo was already playing for the lower categories of Newell's Old Boys, an important professional club in Rosario.

Visibly younger than most children of his age, Lionel Messi was eventually diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency. His father went unsuccessfully to different soccer clubs in Argentina looking to finance the costly treatment, which almost endangered the promising career that he envisioned for Leo.

In 2000, at age 13, Lionel Messi signed with Barcelona Football Club and moved with his family to Spain, as the Catalan club agreed to take over the hormone treatments as part of the contract. After progressing rapidly through the youth academy of Barcelona, ​​«La Masia», Leo made his debut in the 2004-05 season, at age 17. Barça were La Liga winners that season, and in the following they won the double title of La Liga and UEFA Champions League champion. The first great success of Messi came in the 2008-09 season, in which he helped Barcelona to conquer the first triplet of Spanish football, including the Copa del Rey, La Liga and the Champions League.

In the following years, Lionel Messi continued to break record after record as he was emerging as the best player in Barcelona and the world in general. The best individual campaign of Messi to date in statistical terms was the 2011-12 season, in which he broke the Spanish and European records of more goals scored in a single season, in addition to having become the Barça's top scorer in official competitions . After each game, the Argentine left-handed crack proved versatile enough to play in any position on the front line and hypnotize the defenders with a mixture of dexterity and speed.

Lionel Messi's field excellence has been applauded around the world through numerous awards, honors and recognitions. Along with the Portuguese crack Cristiano Ronaldo, were the only winners of the prestigious Golden Ball Award in the period from 2008 to 2016, Leo leading the way with five awards in total. He has also received more than 40 awards as player of the year, top scorer and player with the most assists, in addition to a large number of world records.

In the international arena, Lionel Messi chose to represent his native country, Argentina, instead of Spain, despite his dual nationality. Leo made his debut in the Argentine national team in 2004 and is the captain of the team since 2011. Among the titles won, they include the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2005 and the Olympic Gold Medal in 2008. In June 2016, Leo he became the top scorer of the Argentine national team of all times, surpassing the previous record of 54 goals by Gabriel Batistuta.

Although Argentina has one of the best football teams in the world, the team has not been able to win an important international title since joining Lionel Messi. In fact, with him the albiceleste turned out to be runner-up four times: in the 2007 Copa America, in the 2014 World Cup, in the Copa América 2015 and in the Copa América Centenario 2016. After this last defeat, a visibly frustrated Messi announced His retirement from international football, but reversed his decision two months later in response to the overwhelming demonstrations of support from across Argentina. Anyway, for the lack of titles with the selection Leo also has many detractors in his native country.

Outside the courts, Lionel Messi is very involved in solidarity activities aimed at vulnerable children, partly in response to the medical difficulties of his own childhood. In addition to working with UNICEF with funds and personally as a goodwill ambassador, he also runs the Leo Messi Foundation, which supports children in health, education and sports.

Lionel Messi is married to also Rosarina Antonela Roccuzzo. Both have known each other since Leo was five years old, but they only started dating in 2008. Since then, the couple had three children: Thiago (2012), Mateo (2015) and Ciro (2018).