Success Story Of Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi, popularly known as Leo Messi, is arguably the greatest player world football has ever seen. He is an Argentine professional footballer who plays forward and leads as the Argentina National Football Team captain and plays for the French club, Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue-1. Messi is seven times Ballon d’Or, two times The Best FIFA Men’s Player, two times UEFA Men’s Player of the Year, eight times La Liga Best Player, and four times Champions League winner. These are only some examples of Lionel Messi’s stats that clearly define why he is considered the GOAT. Today, Lionel Messi’s net worth is around $400 million, and Lionel Messi’s salary is around 4.1 Crore USD. Messi’s stats are the answer to why people compare him with the Argentine legend, Diego Maradona.

Early Life and Career

Lionel Messi was born in a poor Argentine family. His father worked in a steel factory, and his mother was a part-time cleaner. Coached by his father, Messi started to develop a genuine interest in football from the age of five. He wanted to join the professional football team early, so he joined a local football club, Newell Old Boys Club.

However, his dream shattered when it was found that he had Growth Hormone Deficiency Syndrome, and needed $900 a month for treatment purposes and no local football club at the time could afford to sponsor his treatment.

FC Barcelona’s coach identified Messi’s talent and understood he had an instinctive quality to play football. He signed Messi to play for Barcelona FC immediately after. The first contract that was signed between Messi and FC Barcelona was a paper napkin, now considered the world’s most valuable paper napkin.

At thirteen, Messi relocated to Barcelona with his family and started playing matches in the under-14 team. His talent knew no bounds, so he was promoted to higher divisions very easily. In the 2004-05 season, he became the youngest player of FC Barcelona. Due to his syndrome, he is a medium height and weight player, but his balance, agility, and dribbling skills were so amazing that opponents could only see his magic on the pitch. 2009-10 was the season when Barcelona won the prestigious ‘treble’ (Three Major European Trophies in a single season), and Messi was undoubtedly a great part of that success.

Lionel Messi Barcelona has been an integral part of FC Barcelona’s success, where he scored 474 La Liga goals, the most goals in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League. Some of the other glorious examples of his caliber are:

• Most Liga titles won by a foreign player
• Most hat-tricks for any club in LaLiga
• Most club honors
• Most goals in a single calendar year (2012, he scored 92)

And the list goes on and on.

International Achievements

Messi is now the captain of the Argentine National Team and holds the record for the most number of goals for his country, most appearances for his country, Golden Ball winner in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, youngest Argentinian to score in the world cup.

Keeping aside all the success, he could not win the FIFA World Cup 2014 when his team was the runners-up, and he also lost two finals consecutively in COPA America 2015 and 2016. He retired after this, but returned and won Copa America, 2021. In 2022, the Finalissima was held between winners of the EURO Cup and COPA America, where Argentina emerged victorious.