Lionel Messi:All Information,Personal life,Career,Achievements,Records and Awards

Prime forward for Argentina and FC Barcelona.Youngest player to play in FIFA World Cup.The great player who has been announced by legend Diego Maradona as his “successor”.The four time Ballon d’Or. Jersey number 10.Yes the man is Lionel Messi.

Lionel Andrés Messi,born 24 June 1987,is an Argentine footballer who plays as a forward for Spanish club FC Barcelona and the Argentina national team.He serves as the captain of his country’s national football team.

Messi was at one stage romantically linked to Macarena Lemos,also from his hometown of Rosario.He is said to have been introduced to her by the girls’s father when he returned to Rosario to recover from his injury a few days before the start of the 2006 World Cup.He has in the past also been linked to the Argentine glamour model Luciana Salazar.In January 2009,he told “Hat Trick Barca”,a programme on Canal 33:”I have a girlfriend and she is living in Argentina.I am relaxed and happy.”He was seen with the girl.Antonella Roccuzzo at a carnival in Sitges after the Barcelona-Espanyol derby.Roccuzzo is a fellow native of Rosario.On 2 June 2012,Messi assisted and scored a goal in Argentina’s 4-0 win against Ecuador in a World Cup 2014 qualifying match.He celebrated scoring his 23^rd goal for Argentina by placing the ball under his jersey,as his girlfriend was reportedly 12 weeks pregnant.She posted on Twitter that she is expected to give birth in Spetember.Messi confirmed that the child,a son,would be born in October,and that he and his girlfriend plan to name him Thiago.However,the birth occurred later than expected.On 2 November 2012,Messi became a father for the first time following the birth of his son Thiago.He also had the boy’s name and handprints tattooed on his left calf.

Messi has maintained close ties to Rosario and his family since leaving for Spain,and has gone to great lengths to maintain them.These ties begin with his speech-to this day,Messi speaks Spanish with the distinctive accent of Rosario,even though he has now lived in Spain as long as he has in Rosario.He also keeps in daily contact via phone and text with a small group of confidants from Rosario,most of them fellow members of “The Machine of ’87”.One time when he was training with the Argentina national team in Buenos Aires,he made a three-hour trip by car to Rosario immediately after practice to have dinner with his family,spent night with them,and then returned to Buenos Aires the next day in time for practice.Messi has also kept ownership of his old house in Rosario,although his family no longer lives in it,he maintains a penthouse apartment in an exclusive residential building in which his mother lives(Messi’s father spends most of his time in Spain with him),as well as a family compound just outside the city.Messi is also known to have two cousins involved in football:Maxi who is a winger for Club Olimpia of Paraguay and Emanuel Biancucchi who plays as a midfielder for Paraguay’s Independiente F.B.C.

By the age of 21,Messi has received Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations.The following year,2009,he won his first Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards.He followed this up by winning the inaugural FIFA Ballon d’Or in 2010,and then again in 2011 and 2012.He also won the 2010-11 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award.At the age of 24,Messi became Barcelona’s all-time top scorer in all official club competitions.At age 25,Messi became the youngest player to score 200 goals in La Liga’s matches.

Commonly ranked as the best player in the world and rated as the greatest of all time,Messi is the first footballer in history to win four FIFA Ballons d’Or which he won consecutively as well as the first to win three European Golden Shoe awards.Messi has won six La Ligas,two Copas del Rey,five Supercopas de España,three UEFA Champions Leagues,two UEFA Super Cups and two Club World Cups as a player for Barcelona.

Messi holds the record for the most hat-tricks scored(4) in the Champions League campaigns and is also the first and the only player to top score in four consecutive competitions.In March 2012,Messi made history in Champions League by becoming the first player to score five goals in one match.He also matched José Altafni’s record of 14 goals in a single Champion League season.With 73 goals,Messi set the record for most goals in season during 2011-12 season.In the same season,he set the current goal scoring record in a single La Liga season,scoring 50 goals.In that season ,Messi also became the first player ever to score and assist in six different official competitions in one season.On 16 February 2013,Messi scored his 300^th Barcelona goal.Messi scored in his 19^th consecutive La Liga game,becoming the first footballer in history to net in consecutive matches against every team In a professional football league on 30^th March 2013.He extended his record scoring streak to 21 consecutive league matches,and the run came to halt only when he sustained a hamstring injury.In March 2014,with a hat-trick against Real Madrid,Messi became the player with most goals and most hat-tricks in El Clásico.

Messi helped Argentina win the 2005 FIFA U-20 World Cup,finishing as both the best player and the top scorer(with 6 goals).In 2006,he became the youngest Argentine to play and score in the FIFA World Cup,and won a runners-up medal at the Copa América in 2007,in which he was elected young player of the tournament.In 2008,he won his first international honour,an Olympic Gold Medal,with the Argentina Olympic football team.His playing style and his stature have drawn comparisons to compatriot Diego Maradona,who himself declared Messi his “successor”.