Lionel Messi: how the star’s career began

The future legend of Spanish football Lionel Messi was born on June 29, 1987 in Rosario, Argentina. At that time, his family was ordinary workers. His father worked on a steel mill, while his mother was a cleaner. He started playing football when he was 5. The field was located far from home, but his grandmother Celia — by the way, the only one in the family who wanted Messi to become a football player — took him to practices. She died when Lionel was 11 years old. As a sign of respect for his grandmother, he dedicated most of his goals to her. The first team that Messi played was Grandoli. It is no longer possible to find out its football results today, but there is information on his other teams on themed resources.

When Messi was 7 years old, he moved to the Newells Old Boys, where there he was able to reveal his talent. During his 6 years with the team, Lionel scored about 500 goals. Thanks to him, the Newells Old Boys won 45 matches in the season of 1999 and got a nickname Invincible.

When the future star was 10, he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency. At that time, his height was 127 cm, and his weight was about 30 kg. If the disease progressed, Messi’s football career would hardly be a success. Doctors prescribed him somatropin treatment. Regular injections were quite expensive, so the family of the future star hardly collected the required amount, not without the help of the godfather. The club also helped the boy, but their share was not too large, only 400 pesos. During the course of treatment, he didn’t stop showing excellent football results during today’s training sessions.

Some statistics

To date, Messi has scored over 650 goals for Barca and at least 70 for the Argentine national team. Taking into account this figure, Lionel was ranked 7th in the world rankings for the number of goals scored. Above him are:

• Pele;
• Ronaldo;
• Romario, and others.

Lionel not only scores well but also gives good assists. There were more than 280 of them for Barcelona, ​​and more than 50 for the Argentine national team. This doesn’t bother the star at all, because according to Messi himself, he loves to do it. The main thing for him is the victory of the team.

Lionel Messi has over 50 records. One of them is the number of goals scored in the Spanish championship, while playing for Barcelona and the Argentina national team. Messi also broke the record for the number of Golden Balls he received. And that’s not all. By the way, Lionel got to Barca in September 2000. One training was enough for him to show all his talents and potential.