When a man scores more goals than his age he is called Lionel Messi. A soccer player, a professional footballer, a celebrity, he is ranked the world’s highest-paid athlete, 2019 by Forbes. As of 2020, Lionel Messi’s net worth is USD 400 million. Messi after announcing his international retirement in 2016, returned to the game to lead Argentina in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and to secure a third-place finish at the 2019 Copa América. Messi, a professional footballer captains both, the Spanish Club Barcelona Team and Argentina National Team playing in the position as a forward
The Winnings
Messi has won:
– 6 Ballon d’Or awards
– 6 European Golden Shoes
– 34 Club-record trophies for Barcelona (including 10 La Liga titles, 4 UEFA Champions League titles, and 6 Copas del Rey)
– 1 Best FIFA Player of the Year award
He holds a record for:
– Maximum goals in La Liga (438 goals)
– Maximum goals in a European league season (50 goals)
– Most hat-tricks: La Liga (36) and UEFA Champions League (8)
– Over 700 senior career goals for club and country
Starting Young
Talent cannot be hidden for too long. Born on June 24, 1987, in Rosario, Argentina, to Jorge and Celia Messi, by the time Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini turned four, his father had already spotted his talent in football. Watching the fragile dwarf ‘Leo’ play so well with his older brothers, Rodrigo and Matías, and cousins, Maximiliano and Emanuel Biancucchi, his father decided to train him at the local Grandoli Club. At the age of 6, he joined the Rosario Club playing for Newell’s Old Boys youth team till he turned 12. Fondly called ‘the Machine of 87’, he scored 500 goals for them.
At the age of 13, Messi relocated to Spain. There he enrolled at Barcelona’s youth academy, La Masia. It all began in 2002–03, when Messi scored 36 goals in 30 games for the Cadetes A, who won the league, the Spanish Cup and the Catalan Cup. At the age of 17, he made his first competitive league debut for Barcelona on October 16, 2004. At the age of 18, he scored his first senior goal against Albacete. On 24 June 2005, on his 18th birthday, Messi signed his first contract as a senior team player making him a Barcelona player until 2010. After scoring this senior goal in August 2005, he soon scored at the FIFA World Cup 2006 and then again reaching the finals of the 2007 Copa America.
In the years 2011 and 2012, Lionel Messi was named by Time magazine as ‘Time’s 100 most influential people’ in the world.
Later as a captain of the Argentina National team from August 2011, he led Argentina to three consecutive finals-
– 2014 FIFA World Cup (for which he received the prestigious the Golden Ball)
– 2015 Copa America, and
– 2016 Copa América
Lionel Messi – The Master of the Game
Lionel Messi has played the position forward, for Barcelona in 16 seasons during which he played 730 matches and scored 621 goals.
As Lionel continued to win just about everything by the time he was 24, he became as the best player of his generation and greatest footballer of all time. He could dribble a ball at a defense like no other. He could score goals better than most teammates. He could maneuver with tactical intelligence to build the best attacks. Termed as the best creator, passer, mover and finisher – a complete all-rounder and the Adidas Man, he has surpassed his rival Christiano Ronaldo (although Christiano Ronaldo has a bigger fan following with 63.5 million followers on Twitter and 122.6 million likes on Facebook).
Married to Antonella Rocccuzzo in 2017, Lionel Messi now spends a lot of time not just being a footballer but also a father to his sons Thiago (8), Mateo(5), and Ciro (2).
But having said that, in 2020, Lionel Messi – the King of football is back.