Lionel Messi
Right Winger / False Nine · Barcelona · Argentina
About Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi is widely considered the greatest footballer of all time. An eight-time Ballon d'Or winner and the all-time top scorer in La Liga and the Champions League, he completed his legacy by leading Argentina to the 2022 FIFA World Cup — winning the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player.
Lionel Messi's story
The Boy from Rosario
Lionel Andrés Messi was born on 24 June 1987 in Rosario (ARG), Argentina, the third of four children of Jorge Messi, a factory steel worker, and Celia Cuccittini, a cleaner. From the age of five he played for his local club Grandoli, coached by his father. He was tiny but technically exceptional — other boys' parents complained it was unfair to put him on the same pitch as their children. At ten he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency. Treatment cost $1,000 a month — beyond the family's means. Newells Old Boys offered to help but couldn't sustain it. Then Barcelona (ESP)'s scouts came.
A Napkin and a Promise
The story of Messi's Barcelona contract is one of football's great legends: Carles Rexach, Barcelona's sporting director, was so convinced of the 13-year-old's talent after watching one training session that he scrawled the terms of an agreement on a paper napkin. That napkin has since sold at auction. Messi moved to Spain, his mother and siblings eventually returning to Argentina while his father stayed with him. The separation from his mother hit him hard. He became quieter, more withdrawn — and channelled everything into football.
Antonela & Family
Messi married his childhood sweetheart Antonela Roccuzzo in June 2017 in a lavish ceremony in Rosario attended by virtually every major footballer on earth. They had grown up on the same street — Antonela is the cousin of one of his oldest friends. They have three sons together: Thiago (born 2012), Mateo (2015) and Ciro (2018). Off the pitch, Messi is the opposite of his on-pitch brilliance — shy, softly spoken, deeply private. He drinks mate obsessively, supports his sons' football games at weekends, and has largely avoided scandal throughout his career.
The Weight of Argentina
For much of his career, Messi's relationship with the Argentina public was complicated and painful. Some fans never forgave him for what they perceived as insufficient passion — they compared him unfavourably to Maradona. The 2022 World Cup was the resolution of this long, painful national drama. When he lifted the trophy in Lusail, the images circled the globe. He wept. His teammates wept. Half the planet seemed to weep with him.
Miami & Legacy
Messi moved to Inter Miami in 2023, joining his old Barcelona teammates Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets. His arrival transformed American interest in football overnight — tickets sold out across the continent, and MLS viewership records shattered. Now in the twilight of his career, he shows no signs of diminishing. He remains the gentlest of all the greats — a man who let his feet do the talking, and whose feet said more than anyone else in history.
Did you know?
- 🏆 Has won 8 Ballon d'Or awards — more than any player in the history of the award.
- ⚽ Scored 91 goals in 2012, setting a world record for most goals in a calendar year by a professional player.
- 👨👩👧👦 His older brothers, Rodrigo and Matías, have overseen his security and off-field business affairs since his teenage years at Barcelona — a family-run operation that still manages his image rights and finances today.
- 🇦🇷 Became the first player in World Cup history to score in every round of a single tournament, from the opening group game through to the final itself, at Qatar 2022.
- 📊 Holds La Liga's all-time scoring record (474 goals), surpassing Telmo Zarra's 59-year-old record.
- 🌟 At FC Barcelona, he won 35 trophies — more than any other player in the club's history.
- 📝 He made his first-team debut for Barcelona in a friendly on 16 November 2003, aged 16, and scored his first senior goal on 1 May 2005 against Albacete — a delicate lob assisted by Ronaldinho that made him, at 17, the club's youngest ever goalscorer at the time.
- 😢 He briefly retired from international football after losing three consecutive finals with Argentina. His return — and the 2022 World Cup triumph — is one of sport's greatest redemption stories.
- 🧉 He is devoted to drinking mate — the Argentine herbal tea — and reportedly travels everywhere with his thermos, gourd and bombilla, insisting on the same brand he had as a child in Rosario.
Honours
- FIFA World Cup: 2022 — Argentina (Golden Ball winner)
- Copa América x2: 2021, 2024 — Argentina
- UEFA Champions League x4: 2006, 2009, 2011, 2015 — FC Barcelona
- La Liga x10: 2005–06, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2012–13, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2022–23 — FC Barcelona
- Copa del Rey x7: Multiple wins — FC Barcelona
- Ligue 1 x2: 2022, 2023 — PSG
- Ballon d'Or x8: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021, 2023
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