Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi is one of the most famous football players these days, despite retiring from the sport in 2016. But don’t worry, it was only from playing with Argentina national team. He is still playing for FC Barcelona, and is, in fact, one of the highest paid football players in the world, along with Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar. Lionel Messi has won Ballon d’Or five times, as well as the prestigious Golden Boot four times, in 2010, 2012, 2013, and in 2017. Let’s take a look at some of the interesting details about him and his life.

As a young guy, Lionel Messi was always attracted to football or as others call it, soccer. He used to play with his two older brothers, and when he was only eight, he got invited to join a youth system in a Rosario club. Rosario, Argentina is the place he was born in 1987, and it stayed dear to him even to this day. As it can be noticed even today, Lionel Messi isn’t the tallest player around, sporting only 5′ 7″ of height. But that actually gave him an advantage, as he was faster and could pass other players easily, plus being a master with the ball certainly helped.

There was actually a reason for Lionel Messi short stature – doctors found out he had a hormone deficiency which restricted his growth, so his parents had to take things into their own hands. But medical bills were expensive, and doses had to be injected at a certain time period. Luckily, FC Barcelona recognized his talent, and when he was only thirteen, agreed to pay for Lionel Messi medical bills, plus allowed him to train at a youth academy called La Masia. His whole family believed in him and moved to Spain to help him follow his dreams.

That’s where his career started, and Lionel Messi is still playing for FC Barcelona to this day. He was actually the youngest guy to score a goal, which happened on May 1st, 2005. The biggest success for both his team and him was in 2009 – they won the Champions League, La Liga, and Spanish Super Cup titles. That’s when Lionel Messi was awarded FIFA’s World Player of the Year honor/Ballon d’Or award (It used to be merged at the time, however in 2016 the awards were separated).

Messi was also noticed by the legendary player, Diego Maradona, which praised his skillset, and said he recognizes himself in Lionel, saying they are both leaders and playing a beautiful game of football. The career only went upwards for Lionel Messi, and he proceeded to break a record in 2012 and score five goals in a Champions League match. He also managed to break Cesar Rodriguez’s club record of 232 goals just a few weeks later. It made him the object of praise all over the world, with many young fans wishing to be him, and training very hard, hoping they’ll reach his level one day.

As you can see above, Lionel Messi decided to retire from international football in 2016, and although he speaks a foreign language, thanks to beautiful subtitles you can understand his decision and what went into it. He didn’t manage to win a major trophy with Argentina national team and decided to retire from that. But do not worry, Lionel Messi is still pretty young and has a lot of successful years ahead with his football club, FC Barcelona. We’re convinced he’ll continue to break records and win more awards for himself and the team that believed in him from the very beginning.