Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi[note 1] (Spanish elocution: [ljoˈnel anˈdɾes ˈmesi] ( tune in); conceived 24 June 1987) is an Argentine expert footballer who plays as a forward for Spanish club FC Barcelona and the Argentina national group. Regularly considered the best player on the planet and viewed by numerous as the best ever, Messi is the main player in history to win five FIFA Ballon d'Or grants, four of which he won sequentially, and the first to win three European Golden Shoes.[note 2] He has won 29 trophies with Barcelona, including eight La Liga titles, four UEFA Champions League titles, and five Copas del Rey.[6] Both a productive goalscorer and an inventive playmaker, Messi holds the records for most authority objectives scored in La Liga (349), a La Liga season (50) and a club football season in Europe (73), and also those for most helps made in La Liga (137) and the Copa América (11). He has scored more than 500 senior profession objectives for club and nation.
Brought up in focal Argentina, Messi was determined to have a development hormone lack as a kid. At age 13, he moved to Spain to join Barcelona, who consented to pay for his medicinal treatment. After a quick movement through Barcelona's childhood foundation, Messi made his focused presentation matured 17 in October 2004. Regardless of being harm inclined amid his initial vocation, he set up himself as a vital player for the club inside the following three years, completing 2007 as a finalist for both the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year grant, a deed he rehashed the next year. His first continuous battle came in the 2008–09 season, amid which he helped Barcelona accomplish the principal treble in Spanish football. At 22 years of age, Messi won the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year grant by record voting edges.
Three effective seasons took after, with Messi winning three sequential FIFA Ballons d'Or, including an uncommon fourth. His own best crusade to date was the 2011–12 season, in which he set the La Liga and European records for most objectives scored in a solitary season, while building up himself as Barcelona's unsurpassed top scorer in authority rivalries in March 2012. He again battled with harm amid the accompanying two seasons, twice completing second for the Ballon d'Or behind Cristiano Ronaldo, his apparent vocation match. Messi recaptured his best shape amid the 2014–15 crusade, breaking the unequaled goalscoring records in both La Liga and the Champions League in November 2014,[note 3] and drove Barcelona to a notable second treble.
An Argentine worldwide, Messi is his nation's record-breaking driving goalscorer. At youth level, he won the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship, completing the competition with both the Golden Ball and Golden Shoe, and an Olympic gold decoration at the 2008 Summer Olympics. His style of play as a modest, left-footed dribbler drew examinations with countryman Diego Maradona, who pronounced the young person his successor. Subsequent to making his senior introduction in August 2005, Messi turned into the most youthful Argentine to play and score in a FIFA World Cup amid the 2006 version, and achieved the last of the 2007 Copa América, where he was named youthful player of the competition. As the squad's chief from August 2011, he drove Argentina to three back to back finals: the 2014 World Cup, for which he won the Golden Ball, and the 2015 and 2016 Copas América.
Substance
1 Early life
2 Barcelona
2.1 2003–05: Rise to the principal group
2.2 2005–08: Making the beginning eleven
2.3 2009–11: Sustained achievement
2.4 2012: A record-breaking year
2.5 2013–14: Messidependencia
2.6 2014–2015 season: A noteworthy treble
2.7 2015–16 season
2.8 2016–17 season
3 Argentina national group
3.1 2004–05: Success at youth level
3.2 2005–06: Senior and World Cup debuts
3.3 2007–08: Copa América last and Olympic gold
3.4 2008–11: Collective decay
3.5 2011–13: Assuming the captaincy
3.6 2014–15: World Cup and Copa América finals
3.7 2016: Copa América Centenario, retirement, and return
3.7.1 "Don't go, Leo"
3.7.2 Return
4 Player profile
4.1 Style of play
4.2 Reception
4.3 Comparisons to Cristiano Ronaldo
5 In mainstream culture
6 Personal life
6.1 Family and connections
6.2 Charity
6.3 Legal issues
7 Career measurements
7.1 Club
7.2 International
8 Honors and accomplishments
8.1 Barcelona
8.2 International
8.3 Individual
8.3.1 Awards
8.3.2 Performances
8.3.3 Records
8.3.3.1 World
8.3.3.2 Continental
8.3.3.3 Spain
8.3.3.4 Argentina
8.3.3.5 Barcelona
9 References
10 External
connections
