Lionel Messi The Greatest:
Lionel Messi! The wonder name of today’s world of football. If you are a football fan or those who have a little acknowledgment about football, most of them love Messi or like his skills. Who knows that a boy whose age was 17 on 2004 one day he will rein this football world. Messi was not made just like a fairytale. There has been a lot of stories, achievements, and histories behind today’s Messi. Let’s take a small dive into Messi’s stories.
Messi was born on 24th June in 19987 at Rosario city in Argentina. Because of his father’s interest and to assist his father he joined to football club Grandly at the age of 5 which was used to run by his father. Then he joined local football club Newell’s Old Boys when he was 11. From then he is showing his charismatic power in football to us and all of us are enjoying it too. Everything was going fine but all of a sudden, he was attacked by a dangerous disease named “Hormone Deficiency.” Due to this disease, the growth hormone started decreasing from his body which was a threat to his normal growth. In the beginning, his father was carrying all of his expenses but he was unable to pay the treatment cost. His football career could be ended up at that time but God had written something else in his fate. Barcelona’s first team director, Charly Rexach of that time came to know about Messi and was impressed by Messi’s football skills. Without any second thought, Rexach offered him a contract on a paper napkin and assured to bear all of his treatment costs. Then Messi came to Spain and joined to La Masia football club from where his amazing and colorful journey started.
Though he played his first match for Barca in 2003 against Porto but officially played for the club and world football on 16 October in 2004 against city rival Espanyol. He played only 7 minutes in front of 30000 spectaculars. After playing 8 matches on 1st May in 2005 he scored his first goal against Albacete at the Camp Nou. From there a new unique history and a new chapter started. He scored his first hattrick against the giant rival Real Madrid on 10th March in 2007. Now 44 hattricks have been written beside his name (39 for Barca and 5 for Argentina).
In 2005 Messi won South American Youth Championship for Argentina which in future helped him to play in FIFA World Youth Championship and where he scored 6 goals. Because of his outstanding performances, he was called up for Argentina National Team on 17 August in 2005. But Alas! He got a red card at 43 seconds against Hungary which was a friendly match. This is the only red card of his career. Messi scored his first goal for his national team against Croatia on 1st March in 2006.
Till now Messi has played 747 matches (when I was writing) and scored 600 goals. He also assists to score goals and the number is 246 which is quite impressive. In 624 matches he scored 539 goals and 209 assists for Barcelona and in 123 matches he scored 61 goals and 37 assists for his own country. He has Pelé (643 goals) and Gerd Müller (566 goals) in front of him to break down a record of the highest goal scorer for a single club. He has the most goals and assists now for both Barcelona and Argentina. In 2012, he scored 91 goals and his name was written down in the Guinness Book of World. Before that, the record was held by German football legend Gerd Müller who had scored 85 goals in 1972.
Messi has a huge number of achievements in his basket. He has achieved 8 league cups and 4 UCL cups as a member of a team. Besides, he has won UEFA Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup, Copa del Rey and so many. Though he couldn’t win a world cup for his national team, he has also some achievements. 3 times Copa America runners-up, single time FIFA World Cup runners-up are in his basket. As a footballer, he has almost got a lot of awards. Among them, he has got Ballon d’Or for 5 times, 4 Golden Shoe, and so many awards. He was selected as the best player of 2014 FIFA World Cup and won a Golden Ball.
After a long journey of 14 years, the 31 years old Messi has come to the end of his career. In this 14 years, he has made a lot of records. Maybe the football fans will see him to reign this football world for a few more years. Then one day he will retire from football like another 10 players. But as long as the football will stay, Messi will also be remembered by his fans. So, till then keep watching football and keep enjoying his all outstanding performances.