Lionel Andrés Messi, better known as Leo Messi , is an Argentine footballer who also has Spanish nationality since 2005. He plays as a striker for FC Barcelona in the First Division of Spain and for the Argentina national team , of which he is also a captain.
DATE OF BIRTH: June 24, 1987
PLACE OF BIRTH: Rosario, Argentina
HEIGHT: 169cm
BACK: 10
Lionel Messi Biography
Speaking of Lionel Messi is to talk about the undisputed best player in the world today and one of the greats of all history.
With many years of football ahead of him, the genius from Rosario (Argentina) has surpassed the achievements and records of most of the legends of this sport.
He has had Spanish nationality since 2005 and is a football heritage of Humanity’, although he feels Argentine to the core and, also, Blaugrana to the core.
His family was so poor that he started playing football barefoot , but thanks to his innate talent, which has led him to be named the best football player of all time on more than one occasion, he managed to bring his whole family to Spain.
His personal affairs seem more like a family business, as his father, Jorge, has been his agent since he started in the world of football at the age of 14 . 
Each member of his family is a fundamental support for him: his older brother, Rodrigo, manages his daily agenda and his advertising, while his mother, Celia María, and his other brother, Matías, are in charge of managing his foundation and its affairs.
Lionel Messi Career
Winner of the Ballon d’Or on five occasions , four of them consecutive (2009-2012), he is the top scorer in the history of Barça , and is already in the top ten of all scorers in the Spanish First Division; he is the foreign player with the most matches played with the blaugrana shirt.
He began his sports career in 1995 at CA Newell’s Old Boys, where he played until the 2000 season. Then, he left Rosario and moved to Europe at the age of 13 with his family.
Barça, through Josep Maria Minguella and Carles Rexach, signed a football life insurance policy on a paper napkin and incorporated him into the Children’s team. The club agreed to bear the expenses so that Leo could continue the treatment he needed.
Since then, he had a spectacular progression through the different categories (Children A, Cadet B, Cadet A, Juvenile A, Barça C, Barça B and first team) in record time, in keeping with his status as a genius.
He made his first team debut on November 16, 2003 in a friendly match against Porto, then coached by José Mourinho.
His debut in an official match came a year later, in the 2004/2005 season, and it came in an important match: a League derby against RCD Espanyol played at the Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc on October 16, 2004 (0- 1).
He became at that time, at the age of 16, the youngest Barcelona player to play a match in the First Division of the Spanish League.
A few months later, on May 1, 2005, he set a new record: the youngest player in Blaugrana history to score in a league match. His first goal came and the rival was Albacete and with only 17 years, 10 months and 7 days he became the youngest Blaugrana player to score a goal. Bojan Krkic subsequently surpassed his mark.
He was consolidating himself in the first team under the protection of excellent players such as Ronaldinho or Deco da Souza until, with the arrival of Josep Guardiola on the bench, and along with other youth players such as Xavi Hernández, Carles Puyol or Andrés Iniesta, he became the leader football of the best Barça of all time.
If in the 2006-07 and 2007-08 campaigns, years of transition, he consolidated himself in the first team, from then on his consecration arrived . Barça got the treble in the 2008-09 campaign and the ‘sextet’ in 2009 .
In the 2009-10 season, Messi scored 47 goals, 34 in the League, which earned him his first Pichichi and Golden Shoe, equaling Ronaldo’s scoring record in the 1996-97 season. In the 2010-11 season he adds another League and his third Champions League.
The 2011-12 campaign is for him the one of the great individual conquests. In the Champions League he scored five goals in the 7-1 against Bayer Leverkusen and proclaimed himself the best scorer in the history of the competition by scoring 14 goals in one year and adding his fourth award as the tournament’s top scorer.
On October 27, 2012, he scored his official goal number 300 as a professional – the first of the two he scored against Rayo Vallecano in Rayo-Barça (0-5) – and on November 11 he scored in matchday 11 of the League , with two goals, the figure of 75 goals that Pelé achieved in a calendar year in 1958, in Mallorca-Barça (2-4).
He ended the year 2012 with a total of 91 official goals between Barcelona and the Argentine national team, achieving a new world record and crushing the mark of 85 that Gerd Müller had held since 1972. On December 22, he added his last goal at Valladolid- Barca (1-3).
After having won his second and third Golden Boots in 2012 and 2013, he received the Ballon d’Or for the fourth consecutive time in Zurich on January 7, 2013.
In the 2013-14 season, he reached the figure of 337 goals with Barcelona, surpassing Telmo Zarra’s record as the top scorer for a Spanish club in official competitions, and when he reached 371 he also became the 26-year-old Barça ‘s top scorer ahead of Paulino Alcántara .
A week later, on March 23, 2014, with his hat trick in Barça’s victory over Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu (3-4), he surpassed Alfredo di Stéfano as the best scorer in the classics, with 21 goals. 
In the 2014-15 campaign, Luis Enrique’s Barcelona matched Pep Guardiola’s by winning the triplet – League, Cup and Champions – being the only team in history to have won it twice. Messi raised his fourth Champions League in another season for history that culminated with his fifth Ballon d’Or on January 11, 2016 in Zurich.
On April 17, 2016, he reached 500 official goals with Barcelona and Argentina , after having equaled on March 13, 2006 the world record for assists set by Juan Román Riquelme, with 247 assists between clubs and national teams, in Barcelona-Getafe (6-0).
The magical figure of 500 goals was repeated in the 2016/2017 Santander League. Messi reached 500 goals for Barça in a match against Sevilla in which the Blaugrana team won 1-2.
He is captain of Argentina. In 2008, at the Beijing Olympics, he won the gold medal. He has already played three World Cups (2006, 2010 and 2014) and four Copa Américas (2007, 2011, 2015 and 2016) with her, being a finalist in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and in three of the four Copa América: Venezuela 2007, Chile 2015 and United States 2016.
At the end of 2011, he was selected as one of the 32 most popular personalities of the year by TIME magazine and was a candidate for ‘Person of the Year’ (the only athlete nominated on that list).
In 2007, he created the foundation that bears his name with the aim of helping children and adolescents at risk, especially in the areas of education and health.
In addition, on March 11, 2010, the footballer was named UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for his actions. As if that were not enough, the most supportive side of him comes out in every friendly match that crosses his path or in fundraising actions, all for the good of children.
Lionel Messi Net Worth
According to Forbes, he is the highest paid athlete in the world with 130 million dollars in the last year; however, her net worth from him amounts to a higher amount.
Since his professional debut in 2004, the Argentine striker has gradually climbed in terms of the salary he receives at both FC Barcelona and PSG. Similarly, he has various businesses and sponsorships that have increased the fortune of the Rosario striker.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, he has a net worth of 420 million dollars : this allows him to be in the Top 3 of the richest athletes in the world.
Currently, the PSG star has a salary of 50 million dollars per season; On the other hand, it has 40 different sponsors and it is estimated that each one gives up to 5 million dollars to the Argentine.
Lionel Messi Love Life
Since 2007, he has been in a relationship with Antonela Roccuzzo , whom he has known since he was nine years old. They met in Rosario (Argentina) when they were little: she was introduced to her by Lucas Scaglia, her cousin and his partner in her early days in football.
He was in love with her for many years, even when he was already in Spain playing for FC Barcelona, until Antonella lost her best friend in a traffic accident. So,he did not hesitate for a moment to travel to Rosario to give him all the support in the world.
They made their relationship official in 2009 and formed a beautiful family. A story worthy of a fairy tale that ended in a wedding on June 30, 2017 in the same city where it all began, with two Rosa Clará designs that the model wore.
Together with Antonella Roccuzzo, he has formed a large family like Pilar Rubio and Sergio Ramos . The couple have three children together: Thiago, Mateo and Ciro. 
To announce Antonella’s first pregnancy, he put the soccer ball under his shirt after scoring a goal in Argentina’s match against Ecuador on June 2, 2012, although the couple did not confirm the pregnancy until a couple of weeks. later.
Thiago was born in Barcelona on November 2, 2012 and he tattooed the name and hands of his eldest son on his left calf. Three years later , the couple’s second son, Mateo, would arrive on September 11, 2015. The youngest of the family is called Ciro and was born on March 11, 2018.
