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Early Life and Career in Lionel Messi Biography
Leo Messi, full name is Lionel Andrés Messi. He is mostly called Leo Messi. He was born around June 24, 1987 at Rosario in Argentina. Messi, is an Argentine professional football player.
Lionel Messi was born to Jorge Messi and Celia Cuccittini in Rosario, Santa Fe Province. He has three siblings, two elder brothers Rodrigo and Matias, and a sister, Maria Sol. His father was a factory steel worker and his mother was employed as a part-time cleaner. As of the time of writing this, is currently a forward for Ligue 1 club, Paris Saint-Germain and also captains the Argentina national team.
Messi started playing football at a very young age as a little boy in 1995. Due to his skilful nature playing ball at that age, he was c hoosen to join the youth team of Newell’s Old Boys, a Rosario-based top-division football club. Messi’s football skill, made him highly sort after player giving him attention of prestigious clubs on both sides of the Atlantic.
Since he started making progress earlier, Messi and his family relocated to Barcelona at the age of 13, and he began playing for FC Barcelona’s under-14 team. He went to play fantastic games and scored 21 goals in 14 games for the junior team, and he quickly graduated through the higher-level teams until at age 16 when he was given his informal debut with FC Barcelona in a friendly match.
Accolades
Lionel Messi according to Wikipedia, is considered the best player in the world and widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.
Messi has won a record seven Ballon d’Or awards, a record six European Golden Shoes, and in 2020 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 35 trophies, including ten La Liga titles, seven Copa del Rey titles and four UEFA Champions Leagues.
A prolific goalscorer and creative playmaker, Messi holds the records for most goals in La Liga (474), a La Liga and European league season (50), most hat-tricks in La Liga (36) and the UEFA Champions League (8), and most assists in La Liga (192), a La Liga season (21) and the Copa América (17).
He also holds the record for most international goals by a South American male (80). Messi has scored over 750 senior career goals for club and country, and has the most goals by a player for a single club.
HEALTH CHALLENGE
Messi become identified with a growth hormone deficiency while he became 11. Notwithstanding being immensely gifted, he was not granted help by the local clubs, who at that time, weren’t ready to foot his medical expenses.
It happened, at this juncture that Carles Rexach, the sporting director of FC Barcelona, came to his aid and proffer to provide help to Messi by paying for his medical bills with the condition for Messi and family if they relocate to Spain. Leo Messi was later enrolled at the Barcelona’s youth academy.
In the 2004–05 season Messi, who was 17 years old at that time, became the youngest official player and goal scorer in the Spanish La Liga which is the country’s highest division of football. During that time, he was only 5 feet 7 inches (1.7 metres) tall and weighing 148 pounds (67 kg), he was strong, well-balanced, and versatile on the field and still play skilfully.
Naturally left-footed, quick, and precise in control of the ball, Messi was a keen pass distributor and could readily thread his way through packed defenses. In 2005 he was granted Spanish citizenship, an honour greeted with mixed feelings by the fiercely Catalan supporters of Barcelona. The next year Messi and Barcelona won the Champions League (the European club championship) title.
PERSONAL LIFE
Since 2008, Messi has been in a relationship with Antonela Roccuzzo, who is a fellow of the native of Rosario. He has known Roccuzzo since he was five years old, as she is the cousin of his childhood best friend, Lucas Scaglia, who is confirmed a fellow football player.
Messi and his partner Roccuzzo relationship produced three sons namely; Thiago their first son born in the year 2012, Mateo their second son born in the year 2015, and Ciro who happens to be their third son was born in the year 2018.
SCANDAL
In July 2016, Messi suffered a blow off the soccer field when a Barcelona court found him and his father guilty of three counts of tax fraud. During a four-day trial, Messi and his father denied breaking the law and claimed they were unaware of any tax illegalities that were committed.
However, they were both sentenced to 21 months in prison. Under Spanish law, first offenses under two years are suspended so they did not go to jail, but Messi was ordered to pay a fine of 2 million euros. His father was required to pay 1.5 million euros.
Philanthropy and UNICEF
Although famously private off the field, Messi has quietly helped others in need. Messi has been involved in charitable efforts aimed at vulnerable children, a commitment that stems in part from the medical difficulties he faced in his own childhood.
In 2007, he formed the Leo Messi Foundation to provide opportunities for disadvantaged youths which supports access to health care, education, and sport for children. It was established. In early 2010, UNICEF named him a goodwill ambassador, with a focus on fighting for children’s rights across the globe
In November 2019, Lionel paid $5 million for a condo in Miami. In April 2021 he paid $7.3 million for the entire ninth floor of a different building in Miami.
In March 2020, Messi made a $1 million dollar donation to help fight the spread of coronavirus. In addition, Messi and his fellow Barcelona Football Club teammates took a 70 percent cut in their salaries during the COVID-19 emergency. They did this so that no Barcelona workers would have their wages docked during the global emergency.
Criticism
Messi was criticized for Argentina National Team Performance
For all his success with Barcelona, Messi has come under fire for his inability to help Argentina’s national team win a major title. He did lead “La Albiceleste” to the final of the 2014 World Cup, and was named player of the tournament, although his team lost to Germany.
In 2016, following Argentina’s second consecutive loss to Chile in the final of the Copa America tournament, Messi announced he was ending his run with the national team.
The soccer great eventually reversed his decision, but his participation in the 2018 World Cup did not bring that elusive title, as hoped. After Messi scored an early goal in a 2-1 win over Nigeria that helped his team advance from the group stage, he was largely kept in check by France, his two assists not enough to stave off a 4-3 defeat that sent Argentina packing.
The following year, after Messi heavily criticized the referees in the wake of a 2-0 loss to Brazil in the Copa America semifinals, the Argentine captain was slapped with a three-game ban by the South American Football Confederation.
This Criticism content retrieved from Biography.com
Messi’s play continued to rapidly improve over the years. Despite his dual citizenship and professional success in Spain, Messi’s ties with his homeland remained strong, and he was a key member of various Argentine national teams.
