Lionel Messi

Who Is Lionel Messi?

Lionel Messi is a famous footballer. He is known for being very good at football.

Many people think he is one of the best football players in the world. He plays as a forward and is also a captain of a team.

Early Life and Background

Lionel Messi was born on June 24, 1987.

Career and Claim to Fame

Lionel Messi is a professional footballer. He has won many awards for his football skills.

He has won many awards, including being named the world's best player by FIFA many times. You can find out more about Lionel Messi on his official website.

Birthday, Age and Zodiac

Lionel Messi was born on June 24, 1987. He is 39 years old.

His zodiac sign is Cancer. People with this sign are often very nice and caring.

What It Means To Be A Cancer

Being a Cancer means Lionel Messi is likely very kind and thoughtful. This sign is known for being very good with people.

Fun Facts and Legacy

Lionel Messi is a very good footballer and has won many awards. He plays as a forward and is a captain of a team.

He is 39 years old and was born on June 24, 1987. Many people think he is one of the best football players in the world.

Lionel Messi is a famous footballer and people can find out more about him on his website.

Lionel Messi - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of Lionel Messi

Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains both Major League Soccer (MLS) club Inter Miami and the Argentina national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in history, Messi has set numerous records for individual accolades won throughout his professional footballing career, including eight Ballons d'Or, six European Golden Shoes, and being named the world's best player by FIFA eight times. In 2025, he was named the All Time Men's World Best Player by the IFFHS. Messi is the most decorated player in the history of professional football, having won 46 team trophies. His records include most goals in a calendar year (91), most goals for a single club (672 for Barcelona), most goals in La Liga (474), most assists in the FIFA World Cup (12), and most assists in international football (65). Messi has scored over 910 senior career goals and provided over 410 assists for club and country, making him the second-highest goalscorer and the highest assist provider in the history of the sport.

This profile of Lionel Messi covers Early Life and Family Background, Newell's Old Boys, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain.

In 2004, Messi made his competitive debut for Barcelona at age 17. He gradually established himself as an integral player for the club, and during his first uninterrupted season in 2008–09 he helped Barcelona achieve the first treble in Spanish football. This resulted in Messi winning the first of four consecutive Ballons d'Or, and by the 2011–12 season he had set the European record for most goals in a season and established himself as Barcelona's all-time top scorer. During the 2014–15 season, where he became the all-time top scorer in La Liga, he led Barcelona to a historic second treble, earning his fifth Ballon d'Or. Messi was named Barcelona's captain in 2018. While playing for the club, he won a club-record 34 trophies, including 10 La Liga titles and four UEFA Champions Leagues. Financial difficulties at Barcelona led Messi to depart in 2021 and sign with Paris Saint-Germain, where he won the Ligue 1 title twice. He joined the MLS club Inter Miami in 2023 and led them to their first MLS Cup victory in 2025, while also winning back-to-back league MVP awards in 2024 and 2025.

With Argentina, Messi is the national team's all-time leading goalscorer (125) and most-capped player (207). Several years after his senior debut in 2005, he won the gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Assuming captaincy in 2011, he led Argentina to three consecutive finals in the 2014 World Cup, the 2015 Copa América, and the Copa América Centenario, all of which they lost. He later announced his retirement from international football in 2016, though returned soon after.

The 2020s marked the most successful period of Messi's international career. He was central to Argentina winning the 2021 Copa América before leading them to victory at the 2022 World Cup, where he became the first player to win the World Cup Golden Ball twice. He claimed his third major international title when Argentina won the 2024 Copa América. At the 2026 World Cup, Messi led his country to a second consecutive World Cup final, winning his second consecutive Silver Boot and the Silver Ball.

Messi has been sponsored by the sportswear company Adidas since 2006. He was ranked the world's highest-paid athlete by Forbes in 2019 and 2022, and was among Time's 100 most influential people in the world in 2011, 2012, and 2023. In 2020 and 2023, he was named the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year, the first team-sport athlete to win the award. In 2020, Messi became the second footballer and second team-sport athlete to surpass $1 billion in career earnings. In 2026, he appeared on The World's Billionaires list for the first time with a net worth of $1.1 billion. Following his arrival and impact on football in the United States, Messi was named Time's Athlete of the Year in 2023, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US president Joe Biden in 2025.

Early Life and Family Background of Lionel Messi

Lionel Andrés Messi was born on 24 June 1987 in Rosario, Santa Fe Province. He is the third of four children of Jorge Messi, head of department at the Acindar pressed steel manufacturer in Villa Constitución, and his wife Celia Cuccittini, who worked in a magnet manufacturing workshop. His parents met as youngsters in Rosario's south-eastern district of Las Heras, where Messi himself later grew up, and married on Jorge Messi's completion of military service in the Argentine Armed Forces in 1978. On his father's side, Messi is of Italian and Spanish descent, the great-grandson of immigrants from the north-central Adriatic Marche region of Italy (with his surname coming from Porto Recanati), and on his mother's side he has primarily Italian ancestry. Growing up in a tight-knit, football-loving family, "Leo" developed a passion for the sport from an early age, playing constantly with his older brothers, Rodrigo and Matías, and his cousins, Maximiliano and Emanuel Biancucchi, both of whom became professional footballers.

At the age of four, Messi joined the local football club Abanderado Grandoli where he was coached by his father. His maternal grandmother, Celia, accompanied him to training and matches. He was greatly affected by her death, shortly before his eleventh birthday. Since then, as a devout Catholic, he has celebrated his goals by looking up and pointing to the sky in tribute to his grandmother.

Newell's Old Boys of Lionel Messi

Messi started playing for the Rosario-based football club Newell's Old Boys when he was seven years old; he would become a lifelong supporter of the club. During the six years he played for Newell's, he scored almost 500 goals, and was a member of "The Machine of '87", a nearly unbeatable youth team named for the year of their birth. Messi regularly entertained crowds by performing ball tricks during half-time, when the Newell's first team played home games. His goalscoring idol growing up was Brazilian striker Ronaldo, who Messi called "the best forward I've ever seen".

Messi's future as a professional player was threatened when, at the age of 10, he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency. He began growth hormone therapy at age 11; but his father's health insurance covered only two years of the therapy, which cost at least 1,000 pesos per month. Newell's agreed to contribute, but later reneged on their promise. Messi was scouted by the Buenos Aires club River Plate, whose playmaker Pablo Aimar he idolised. It was speculated for a time that Messi failed to sign with River Plate due to his ill health; but in a 2019 interview, he revealed that River Plate had wanted to sign him after he scored four goals at a trial, and even offered to pay for his medical treatment, but Newell's refused to release his player card, preventing the transfer.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Messi), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.