Football captain
Lionel Andrés Messi, also known as Leo Messi, is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains both Major League Soccer club Inter Miami and the Argentina national team.
Messi relocated to Spain from Argentina aged 13 to join Barcelona, for whom he made his competitive debut aged 17 in October 2004. He established himself as an integral player for the club within the next three years, and in his first uninterrupted season in 2008–09 he helped Barcelona achieve the first treble in Spanish football; that year, aged 22, Messi won his first Ballon d’Or.
An Argentine international, Messi is the country’s all-time leading goalscorer and also holds the national record for appearances. At youth level, he won the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship, finishing the tournament with both the Golden Ball and Golden Shoe, and an Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics. His style of play as a diminutive, left-footed dribbler drew comparisons with his compatriot Diego Maradona, who described Messi as his successor.
Since 2008, Messi has been in a relationship with Antonela Roccuzzo, a fellow native of Rosario.[640] He has known Roccuzzo since he was five years old, as she is the cousin of his childhood best friend, Lucas Scaglia, who is also a football player.[641] After keeping their relationship private for a year, Messi first confirmed their romance in an interview in January 2009, before going public a month later during a carnival in Sitges after the Barcelona–Espanyol derby.[642]
During the 2003–04 season, his fourth with Barcelona, Messi rapidly progressed through the club’s ranks, debuting for four youth teams in a single campaign.[31] After being named player of the tournament in four international pre-season competitions with the Juveniles B, he played only one official match with the team before being promoted to the Juveniles A, where he scored 18 goals in 11 league games.[32][33] Messi was then one of several youth players called up to strengthen a depleted first team during the international break. French winger Ludovic Giuly explained how Messi caught the eye in a training session with Frank Rijkaard‘s first team: “He destroyed us all… They were kicking him all over the place to avoid being ridiculed by this kid, he just got up and kept on playing. He would dribble past four players and score a goal. Even the team’s starting centre-backs were nervous. He was an alien.”[34]
During the 2004–05 season, Messi was a guaranteed starter for the B team, playing 17 games throughout the campaign and scoring on six occasions.[37][43] Since his debut the previous November, he had not been called up to the first team again, but in October 2004, the senior players asked manager Frank Rijkaard to promote him.[37] Since Ronaldinho already played on the left wing, Rijkaard moved Messi from his usual position onto the right flank (though initially against the player’s wishes), allowing him to cut into the centre of the pitch and shoot with his dominant left foot.[44][45] Messi made his league debut during the next match on 16 October, against Espanyol at Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys in Montjuïc, coming on in the 82nd minute.[22] At 17 years, three months, and 22 days old, he was at the time the youngest player to represent Barcelona in an official competition.[39] As a substitute player, he played 244 minutes in nine matches for the first team that season, including his debut in the UEFA Champions League against Shakhtar Donetsk.[43] He scored his first senior goal on 1 May 2005, against Albacete, from an assist by Ronaldinho, becoming – at that time – the youngest-ever scorer for the club.[44][46] Barcelona, in their second season under Rijkaard, won the league for the first time in six years.[47]
