Lionel Andrés Messi is an Argentine footballer who currently plays for FC Barcelona and theArgentina national crew. Considered a person of the greatest football players of his era and repeatedly cited as the world's ideal contemporary player, Messi received many Ballon d'Or and FIFA Globe Player of the 12 months nominations by the age of 21 and won each by the age of 22. His playing fashion and skill have drawn comparisons to Diego Maradona, who himself declared Messi his "successor".
Messi started playing football at a youthful age and his likely was speedily recognized by Barcelona. He left Rosario-based mostly Newell's Outdated Boys's youth staff in 2000 and moved with his family to Europe, as Barcelona provided therapy for his expansion hormone deficiency. Creating his debut in the 2004-05 season, he broke his staff document for the youngest footballer to score a league goal. Key honours soon followed as Barcelona won La Liga in Messi's debut season, and won a double of the league and Champions League in 2006. His breakthrough season was in the 2006-07 season; he grew to become a 1st staff regular, scoring a hat-trick in El Clásico and finishing with 14 targets in 26 league video games. Possibly his most successful season was the 2008-09 season, in which Messi scored 38 targets to play an integral element in a treble-successful campaign. In the following 2009-ten campaign, Messi scored 47 objectives in all competitions, equalling Ronaldo's report complete for Barcelona.
Messi was the best scorer of the 2005 FIFA Entire world Youth Championship with six objectives, which includes two in the final sport. Shortly thereafter, he grew to become an established member of Argentina's senior worldwide crew. In 2006, he grew to become the youngest Argentine to play in the FIFA Globe Cup and he won a runners-up medal at theCopa América tournament the subsequent yr. In 2008, in Beijing, he won his first international honour, an Olympic gold medal, with the Argentina Olympic football group.
