Lionel Messi

Lionel Andrés Messi (born June 24, 1987 in Rosario, Argentina) is a football player who currently plays for FC Barcelona and Argentina as a striker or a winger. Considered one of the best football players of his generation, Messi received several Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the age of 21 nominations, and won in 2009 and 2010 playing style and ability have drawn comparisons with Diego Maradona, who himself declared Messi as " substitute "it. Messi began playing football at a young age and the potential for quickly identified by Barcelona. He left his young team-based Newell Old Boys of Rosario in 2000 and moved with his family to Europe, as Barcelona offered treatment for growth hormone deficiency. Making his debut in the 2004-05 season, he broke his team record for youngest player to score a league goal. Major honors soon followed as Barcelona won La Liga in Messi's debut season, and won the league and Champions League double in 2006. A breakthrough season in 2006-07, he became a first team regular, scoring a hat-trick in El Clásico and finished with 14 goals in 26 league games. Messi then had a most successful season in his playing career, the 2008-09 season, where he scored 38 goals to play an integral part in the treble-winning campaign. This season broke the record and then defeated in the following 2009-10 campaign, in which Messi scored 47 goals in all competitions, equaling the record total of Ronaldo to Barcelona. He surpassed this record again in the 2010-11 season with 53 goals in all competitions. Messi has won five league titles, three Champions League titles, scoring two goals in the final, against Manchester United in both 2009 and 2011. He was not on the field when Barcelona beat Arsenal in 2006, but received the medal winners of the tournament. After scoring 12 goals in the [UEFA Champions League 2010-11 [| Champions League 2010-11]], Messi became only the third player (after Gerd Muller and Jean-Pierre Papin) to top-score in the campaign the European Champion Clubs Cup three successive co '. However, Messi is the first to win the Champions League top scorer for three consecutive years after the Champions League format changed in 1992. Messi is the top scorer of the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship with six goals, including two in the final game. Shortly thereafter, he became a member of an established senior international team of Argentina. In 2006, he became the youngest Argentine to play in the FIFA World Cup and he won a runners-up medal at the Copa América tournament the following year. In 2008, in Beijing, he won his first international honor, the Olympic gold medal, with the Argentina Olympic football team