Juan Schwartzman

Biography of Lionel Messi

Lionel Andres Messi was born in Rosario 24 June 1987, he is an Argentinian footballer, who plays in La Liga for FC Barcelona, he is also the captain of the national team and plays as forward.

Lionel began playing football since he was five and his ability and potential was seen by F.C Barcelona. He left Newells Old boys youth team in 2000 and moved with his family to Spain, as Barcelona offered treatment for his hormone deficiency. Making his debut in the 2004–05 season, he broke his team record for the youngest footballer to score a league goal. Messi scored his first goal for Barcelona in official competition on 1 May 2005 at the age of 17, 10 months and 7 days.

The major awards were quickly won by La Liga in Messi´s debut season, also his team won in 2006 La Liga and The champions league. At the end of that season, Lionel Andres scored a hat-trick in El Clasico with Real Madrid F.C. In the next season he scored 38 goals playing an excellent team, it was a big campaign. This record was broken in season 2009-10, where Messi scored 47 goals in all competitions equaling Cristiano Ronaldo´s total record for Barcelona. He broke this record again in the following season, when he scored 53 goals.

 By the age of 21, Messi received the Ballon de Oro and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations, both  in 2009, and won the inaugural FIFA Ballon de Oro in 2010 and 2011.Messi is the fourth football player to win three Ballon de Oro, after Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini and Marco van Basten and the second player to win three consecutive Ballon de Oro, after Michel Platini. He also won the 2010–11 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award. His playing style and small stature has drawn comparison to Diego Maradona, who has declared Messi his successor.

Messi has also won five La liga titles, three Champions League titles and scoring in two of those finals. In both matches the rival was Manchester United F.C in 2009 and 2011. After scoring 12 goals in the 2010-11 Champions League, Lionel has become the third player to top score in three successive Champions League campaigns. However, Messi is the first one to win the Champions League top scorer titles for three consecutive years.

Through all of the awards, in 2012 Lionel broke all records. He played the Uefa Champions league in fourth round, against Bayer Leverkusen from Germany, and he scored FIVE goals in one match, the final score was 7-1.

At 24 Messi, has played two Worlds Cup, scored only one goal, against Serbia And Montenegro in 2006. As for World Cup 2010, no goal was scored. In 2008, at the Olympic Games in Beijing, the national team of Argentina, won the gold medal.

At the present, Lionel Andres Messi is 25 years old and continues breaking records with his club.