Lionel Messi, in full Lionel Andrés Messi, likewise called Leo Messi, (born June 24, 1987, Rosario, Argentina), Argentine-born football (soccer) player who got an extraordinary seven Ballon d'Or grants as the world's top male player (2009-12, 2015, 2019, and 2021). In 2022 he assisted Argentina with winning the Fédération Internationale de Football Affiliation (FIFA's) Reality Cup.

Messi began playing football as a kid and in 1995 joined the young group of Newell's Old Young men (a Rosario-based top-division football club). Messi's amazing abilities gathered the consideration of lofty clubs on the two sides of the Atlantic. At age 13 Messi and his family moved to Barcelona, and he started playing for FC Barcelona's under-14 group. He scored 21 goals in 14 games for the lesser group, and he immediately graduated through the more significant level groups until at age 16 he was given his casual presentation with FC Barcelona in a cordial match.

In the 2004-05 season Messi, then, at that point, 17, turned into the most youthful authority player and objective scorer in the Spanish La Liga (the country's most noteworthy division of football). However just 5 feet 7 inches (1.7 meters) tall and weighing 148 pounds (67 kg), he was solid, even, and flexible on the field. Normally left-footed, fast, and exact in charge of the ball, Messi was a sharp pass merchant and could promptly clear a path through pressed safeguards. In 2005 he was conceded Spanish citizenship, an honor welcomed with blended sentiments by the wildly Catalan allies of Barcelona. The following year Messi and Barcelona won the Heroes Association (the European club title) title.

Messi's play proceeded to quickly work on throughout the long term, and by 2008 he was perhaps of the most predominant player on the planet, completing second to Manchester Joined's Cristiano Ronaldo in the deciding in favor of the 2008 Ballon d'Or. In mid 2009 Messi covered off a fabulous 2008-09 season by assisting FC Barcelona with catching the club's first "high pitch" (bringing home three significant European club championships in a single season): the group came out on top for the La Liga title, the Copa del Rey (Spain's significant homegrown cup), and the Bosses Association title. He scored 38 goals in 51 matches during that season, and he outmaneuvered Ronaldo in the balloting for both the Ballon d'Or and FIFA's reality player of the year by a record edge. During the 2009-10 season Messi scored 34 goals in homegrown games as Barcelona rehashed as La Liga champions. He procured the Brilliant Shoe grant as Europe's driving scorer, and he got one more Ballon d'Or (the honor was known as the FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2010-15).

Messi drove Barcelona to La Liga and Champions Association titles the accompanying season, which assisted him with catching an exceptional third continuous world player of the year grant. In Walk 2012 he got his 233rd objective for Barcelona, turning into the club's unsurpassed driving scorer in La Liga play when just 24 years of age. He completed Barcelona's 2011-12 season (which incorporated another Copa del Rey win) with 73 goals in all rivalries, breaking Gerd Müller's kid record for single-season goals in a significant European football association. His milestone season prompted his being named the 2012 world player of the year, which made Messi the main player to win the honor multiple times. His 46 La Liga goals in 2012-13 drove the association, and Barcelona caught another homegrown top-division title that season. In 2014 he put forth the general Barcelona objective record when he scored his 370th objective as an individual from the group. That very year he additionally broke the profession scoring records for play in both the Bosses Association (with 72 goals) and La Liga (with 253 goals).