Best Soccer players "Profiles

Lionel Messi

Lionel Andrés Messi is a best soccer player in the world now. He won Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player in 2009 and 2010. He is an Argentine footballer who currently plays for FC Barcelona. He plays as a striker or winger.

Lionel Messi was born 24 June 1987 in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina. His father is Jorge Horacio Messi, a factory steel worker, and his mother is Celia María Cuccittini, a part-time cleaner. His paternal family ancestor is from Italy.

At the age of five, Messi started playing football for Grandoli, then he joined to Newell's Old Boys at 8. At the age of 11, he suffered a growth hormone deficiency. It needs much money for treat it, and FC Barcelona offered to pay his medical treatment if Messi move to Spain. Barcelona very impressed with Messi talent. Then Messi and his father moved to Barcelona where Messi joined the club's youth academy.

His playing style and ability have compare to Diego Maradona, who himself declared Messi as his "successor".

Messi broke his team record for the youngest footballer to score a goal in his debut in the 2004–05 season of La Liga. Major honours soon followed as Barcelona won La Liga in Messi's debut season, and won a double of the league and Champions League in 2006. He became a first team regular in the 2006–07 season and scoring a hat-trick in El Clásico versus Real Madrid.

Messi achievement increasingly skyrocket in following seasons. He scored 38 goals for Barcelona  in the 2008–09 season, and become the most important player of Barcelona successful in a treble-winning campaign. He broke the goals record in the following 2009–10 campaign, where Messi scored 47 goals in all competitions, equaling Ronaldo's record for Barcelona. He exceeded this record again in the 2010–11 season with 53 goals in all competitions.

Messi has won five La Liga titles, three Champions League titles, scoring in two of those finals, against Manchester United in both 2009 and 2011. He scored 12 goals in the 2010–11 Champions League, made Messi became only the third player (after Gerd Müller and Jean-Pierre Papin) to top-score in three successive European Champion Clubs' Cup campaigns. However, Messi is the first player to win the Champions League top scorer titles for three uninterrupted years after Champions League changed its format in 1992.

Messi was the top scorer of the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship in Netherlands with six goals, including two in the final match. In 2006, he became the youngest Argentine to play in the FIFA World Cup and he won a runners-up medal at the Copa América tournament in 2007. Messi led Argentine football team won an Olympic gold medal in Beijing (2008).