Lionel Messi: From Magical Kid to Football Legend

2 0 3 273 0

The Magical kid who became the best football player in history - Lionel Messi.

Argentina legend and now world champion LIONEL MESSI is basking in the glory of greatness. His greatest desire of holding the World Cup trophy in his hands now stands fulfilled. Leo Messi played his last FIFA World Cup. In his 5th appearance for Argentina on the grandest stage of them all, Messi has conquered the world and has clinched the third World Cup title for Argentina.

The great Diego Maradona's prodigal son Leo Messi has matched his heroics from the 1986 World Cup and he has now cemented his legacy which will be lauded by generations to come.

Brief Intro on Lionel Messi :

Lionel Andres Messi was born on 24th June 1987 in Rosario, Argentina, also known as Leo Messi, is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and captains the Argentina national team.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Messi has won a record seven Ballon d'Or awards and a record six European Golden Shoes, and in 2020 he was named to the Ballon d'Or Dream Team.

Until leaving the club in 2021, he had spent his entire professional career with Barcelona, where he won a club-record 34 trophies, including 10 La Liga titles, seven Copa del Rey titles, and four UEFA Champions Leagues.

He was one of the most dominant players in the first two decades of the 2000s. Messi was named the Men's world player of the Year seven times (2009–12, 2015, 2019, and 2021).

Starting Career:

He began playing soccer as a young boy. By 1995 he was a good enough player to join Newell's Old Boys, a top-division soccer club in Rosario.

Messi's skills won attention on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and at the age of 13 Messi moved to Barcelona, Spain, to join FC Barcelona's under-14 team.

He scored 21 goals in 14 games for the junior team. He rose through the ranks until he made his first-team debut at age 16.

Messi's magical spell at FC Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).

Messi relocated to Spain from Argentina aged of 13 to join Barcelona, for whom he made his competitive debut aged 17 in October 2004.

He established himself as an integral player for the club within the next three years, and in his first uninterrupted season in 2008–09, he helped Barcelona achieve the first treble in Spanish football. That year, aged 22, Messi won his first Ballon d'Or.

Three successful seasons followed, with Messi winning four consecutive Ballons d'Or, making him the first player to win the award four times.

During the 2011–12 season, he set the La Liga and European records for most goals scored in a single season, while establishing himself as Barcelona's all-time top scorer.

He won his first FIFA World Player of the Year honor that year as well. The following season he scored 34 goals, and Barcelona repeated as La Liga champions.

Messi won the Golden Shoe award as Europe's top scorer and his second world player of the Year award.

During the 2010–11 season, Messi led Barcelona to La Liga and Champions League titles. He became the first player to win a third straight World Player of the Year award.

In March 2012, at the age of 24, he scored his 233rd goal. This made him Barcelona's all-time leading scorer in La Liga play. Messi went on to break a 39-year-old major European football league record when he finished the 2011–12 season with 73 goals in all competitions.

This performance led to him being the first player to ever win a fourth world player of the Year award.

Messi continued to perform at the highest level. In 2014 he broke the career scoring records for both the Champions League (72 goals) and La Liga (253 goals).

Messi helped Barcelona capture another treble in the 2014–15 season, which resulted in his fifth world player of the Year award.

Over the next four seasons, Messi led Barcelona to various championships, including numerous La Liga and Copa del Rey (the main Spanish cup competition) titles.

In 2019 he won his sixth world player of the Year award.

In March 2021 Messi broke a Barcelona club record when he played his 768th game for the team. He won his seventh Player of the Year award that year as well.

After playing for Barcelona for 21 years, Messi left the club in 2021. He went on to play in France for Paris Saint-Germain.

In the summer of 2021, Messi was forced to switch clubs owing to the Spanish outfit's financial crisis.

The Argentine's first season with PSG was not quite up to his standards as he was unable to score as regularly as we had gotten used to.

Come 2022, a more settled Messi looks in fine form once more. During his spell at PSG to date, he has scalped 31 goals over all.

Under the new leadership of Christophe Galtier, Messi along with his partners in crime Neymar and Kylian Mbappe has formed a lethal trio and will look to bag all pieces of silverware available to them this season.

During his jaw-dropping career at Barcelona, Messi scored a mind-boggling 672 goals in 778 appearances, breaking numerous records during his spell at Camp Nou.

Messi's Milestones:

1,000 career games (Messi on 1,022).

Messi took his total of senior matches played for club and country into four figures at the 2022 World Cup, in the round-of-16 win over Australia. Naturally, he scored one of the goals in the 2-1 win en route to lifting the trophy.

800 career goals (Messi on 805)

Messi has become the second player ever to reach the 800-goal milestone, following in the wake of Ronaldo, who brought up his eighth century with a brace in Manchester United's 3-2 victory over Arsenal in December 2021.

Messi reached the milestone in Argentina's 2-0 win over Panama in a March 23 friendly in Buenos Aires, the first game back for the Albiceleste following their triumph in Qatar.

700 club goals (Messi on 703)

Split between Barcelona (672) and PSG means Messi has reached the same milestone as Ronaldo did with Manchester United in a 2-1 win against Everton in October (which proved to be Ronaldo's last for the club).

Messi scored his 700th goal in a 3-0 win for PSG at Marseille on Feb. 26, 2023.

1,000 club goal contributions (Messi on 1,002)

Just to hammer home the complete nature of his attacking talents, Messi's total career goal contributions (i.e. goals plus assists) in club football is more than four figures.

100 senior international goals (Messi on 102)

Already the all-time top appearance-maker (174 games) for his national team, Messi is the first Argentina player to surpass the 100-goal mark. He achieved the century mark in a friendly match against Curaçao on March 28. In fact, he did in style by notching a hat trick in the 7-0 win.

50 goals in the Champions League knockout phase (Messi on 49)

Messi is close to his half-century of goals at the business end of Europe's top club competition, with only one man ahead of him: Ronaldo holds the record with 67 goals in 80 games between the round of 16 and the final.

Moment to remember.

Comparisons with Diego Maradona seemed apt when Messi scored a stunning goal in a Copa del Rey game against Getafe in April 2007. Messi ran more than half the length of the field and beat six players before slotting the ball into the net from a tight angle.

It was highly implicative of Maradona's famous goal—as opposed to the infamous one—against England in the 1986 World Cup quarterfinals.

There isn't much left for Lionel Messi to win in a truly astounding football career that has already seen the Paris Saint-Germain superstar claim just about every major trophy available to him.