Story of Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi is a footballer from Argentina. He is renowned as one of the stylish players of the modern era. He is currently playing for FC Barcelona as well as the Argentina national team.

He has won hearts around the globe and named FIFA world player of the year four times which is a world record. His ability to dribble past opponents is amazing and has often been described as an image of Diego Maradona’s because of his ability to score goals and make records. The football legend Diego Maradona has its own view in this regard as he quoted “I have seen the player who had inherited my place in Argentina football and his is known as Messi. He is a genius, and he can become an even better player.” That coming to the life of Messi, he was born in the year 1987 in Rosario, Argentina in a working class family. His father worked in a factory as steel worker and his mother worked as a cleaner in homes nearby. He started playing from a very small age and his talent shined drastically. Strangely, at the age of 11, Messi was diagnosed with illness of growth hormone deficiency (GHD). Thereafter it required expensive medical treatment to buy costly drugs for human growth hormone. But when he started gain the soon local club, River Plate were interested in signing Messi but there were more hardships to come. Thereafter, Messi gave a trail at Barcelona and the coach Carles Rexach was impressed and offered Messi a contract. In the 2004/05 season he became the youngest player to score a league goal. In 2006-07, Messi was the first choice striker for Barcelona and proved a star of the Barcelona team by scoring 14 goals in just 26 league games. Thereafter, in the 2009-10 seasons, he scored 47 goals in all competitions round the year, which was equal to Ronaldo’s record total. As his game progressed, Messi kept improvising his game and shattered his own records. In the calendar year of 2012, he came past the all-time world record for highest number of goals scored in a calendar year. He now plays as a forward and captains both the team i.e., Barcelona and the Argentina national. But as to shock in June 2016, in a disappointment from himself, Messi announced retirement from international football, after missing a penalty as Argentina got knocked out of the Copa America final. However, Messi later reversed his decision.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Messi