Who is he?
2007 - Establishes the Leo Messi Foundation, working to improve
access to education and health care for children.
Full
name is Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini, date of birth 24 June 1987 (age 27),place of birth Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina, height 1.69 m (5 ft 6 1⁄2 in),
playing position is a forward. He is agile, he is quick and he is unstoppable ��" Lionel Messi is a playmaker in its truest terms. Presently
captain of Argentina’s national football team, Messi has become the world’s
best soccer player, with atypical talent and record-breaking performances. This
extraordinarily skilled player has some tough records by his side. To start off
with, he is the only player with four FIFA Ballon d'Or awards and three
European Golden Shoe awards, he holds the Guinness World Records title for the
most goals in a year: 91 goals, he has in his kitty the most international
goals in a year (club and national team): 25 goals (held jointly with Vivian
Woodward), he has the most goals scored in FIFA Club World Cup: 4 goals (joint
record shared with Denilson and Mohamed Aboutrika) and the most consecutive
league matches scored in which he has a record of 30 goals in 19 matches. While
these stats are until April 2013, this talented soccer specialist is sure to
break many more in the years to come. Messi has been commonly rated by
commentators, coaches and colleagues as the best footballer in the world and as
one of the greatest players in the history of the game, his main USP being his
ability to remain in full control of the ball even while dribbling in speed.
His outstanding pace and creative combinations coupled with his futuristic
vision and attacking technique is spectacular and efficient, leading him to be
compared with compatriot Diego Maradona.
Early Years
Messi
was born on 24 June 1987 in Rosario, Santa Fe Province, to parents Jorge
Horácio Messi, a factory steel worker, and Celia María Cuccittini, a part-time
cleaner. His paternal family originates from the Italian city of
Ancona, from where his ancestor, Angelo Messi, emigrated to Argentina in 1883.He
has two older brothers, Rodrigo and Matías, and a sister, María Sol. At the
age of five, Messi started playing football for Grandoli, a local
club coached by his father Jorge. In 1995, Messi switched to Newell's Old Boys
who were based in his home city Rosario. He became part of a local youth
powerhouse that lost only one match in the next four years and became locally
known as "The Machine of '87", from the year of their birth.
At
the age of 11, Messi was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency.Local team
River Plate showed interest in Messi's progress, but were not willing to pay
for treatment for his condition, which cost $900 a month. Carles
Rexach, the sporting director of FC Barcelona, was made aware of his talent as Messi
had relatives in Lleida in western Catalonia, and Messi and his father were
able to arrange a trial with the team. Rexach, with no other paper at hand,
offered Messi a contract written on a paper napkin. Barcelona
offered to pay Messi's medical bills on the condition that he moved to Spain.
Messi and his father duly moved to Barcelona, where Messi enrolled in the
club's youth academy. cross the Atlantic to make a new
home in Spain.
Timeline:
1995-2000 - Plays for the local club
team, Newell's Old Boys, in Rosario, Argentina.
2000-2003 - Signs with FC Barcelona
and works his way up through Barca's youth squads.
November 16, 2003 - Makes his team
debut, as a replacement in a friendly match against FC Porto.
October 16, 2004 - Makes his
official debut for FC Barcelona against Espanyol. Barca wins 1-0.
August 2008 - Leads Argentina's
soccer team to a gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Beijing.
March 11, 2010 - Messi is announced
as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
2011-2012 season - Sets the all-time
record for most goals scored in a single season for a major European football
league, with 73 goals.
June 2013 - Prosecutors in Barcelona
file tax fraud charges against Messi and his father for the period between 2007
and 2009. The complaint alleges that Messi and his father, aiming to lower
their Spanish tax bill, sought to manage the player's lucrative income from
image rights through shell companies set up overseas. Messi denies all
allegations of wrongdoing.
June 25, 2013 - Prosecutors in
Barcelona, Spain, tell CNN that Lionel Messi paid €10 million ($13 million) in
taxes to cover the tax period 2010-2011, but efforts to prosecute him for
alleged tax fraud from 2007 to 2009 are still ongoing.
August 14, 2013 - Messi and his
father, Jorge Messi, make a "reparatory" payment of €5 million ($6.6
million) to Spanish authorities for allegedly committing tax fraud between 2007
and 2009.
September 27, 2013 - Messi and his
father testify in a Barcelona court in a preliminary hearing over allegations
they defrauded Spanish tax authorities of more than $5 million.
March 16, 2014 - Scores a hat-trick
(three goals during a game), to become FC Barcelona's all-time leading scorer
with 371 goals, eclipsing the record set by Paulino Alcantara, who scored 369
goals.
May 2014 - Signs a new contract with
FC Barcelona for a reported annual net of €20 million ($27 million).
June 2014 - A Spanish state
prosecutor asks the judge to drop the tax fraud charges against Lionel Messi,
but not his father.
July 13, 2014 - Messi wins the
Golden Ball award for the best player of the World Cup tournament.
July 28, 2014 - A judge rules that
the tax fraud case against Messi and his father will proceed, despite the
Spanish state prosecutor's June request that the charges against Messi be
dropped.
November 25, 2014 - Messi becomes
the leading goalscorer in the European Champions League with 74 goals in 91
appearances.
King of Spain:
Soccer Career
Although
he was often homesick in his new country, Messi moved quickly through the
junior system ranks, and by the age of 16, he had made his first appearance for
Barcelona. Messi put himself in the record books on May 1, 2005, as the
youngest player to ever score a goal for the franchise. That same year, he led
Argentina to the title in the under-20 World Cup, scoring on a pair of penalty
kicks to propel the team over Nigeria. Messi eventually grew to 5 feet and 7
inches, and with his short stature, speed and relentless attacking style, he
drew comparisons to another famous Argentinean footballer: Diego Maradona.
Messi steered Barcelona to a wealth of success, most notably in 2009, when the
left-footer's team captured the Champions League, La Liga, and Spanish Super
Cup titles. That same year, after two consecutive runner-up finishes, he took
home his first FIFA "World Player of the Year" honor/Ballon d'Or
award. Even the great
Maradona gushed about his fellow countryman. "I see him as
very similar to me," the retired player told the BBC. "He's a leader
and is offering lessons in beautiful football. He has something different to
any other player in the world." Amazingly, the diminutive soccer wizard
continued to improve, discovering new ways to elude defenders while leading
Barcelona to La Liga and Spanish Super Cup championships in 2010 and 2011, as
well as the '11 Champions League title. Messi embarked on an all-out assault on
the record books in 2012. He became the first player to score five goals in a
Champions League match in early March, and a few weeks later he surpassed Cesar
Rodriguez's club-record 232 goals to become Barcelona's all-time leading
scorer. By the end of 2012, Messi had accumulated an astounding 91 goals in
club and international play, eclipsing the 85 netted in a single calendar year
by Gerd Muller in 1972. Fittingly, he broke one more record when he was named
the FIFA Ballon d'Or winner for the fourth time in January 2013. Messi led team
Argentina to the finals of the 2014 World Cup. Although his team lost to
Germany, he was named best player of the tournament.
Charity
In
2007, Messi established the Leo Messi Foundation, a charity supporting access
to education and health care for vulnerable children. In response to Messi's
own childhood medical difficulties, the Leo Messi Foundation has offered
Argentine children diagnosed with illnesses treatment in Spain and funds
covering the transport, hospital and recuperation costs. Messi's foundation is
supported by his own fundraising activity with additional assistance from
Herbalife. On 11 March 2010 Messi was announced as a goodwill ambassador for
UNICEF. Messi's UNICEF ambassador activities are aimed at supporting children’s
rights. Messi is supported in this by Barcelona, who also have a strong
association with UNICEF. He and Newell's have also ended a long public feud.
Messi funded the construction of a dormitory inside Newell's stadium for the
club's youth academy, as well as a new gymnasium for the club. For their part,
Newell's has begun to embrace their ties with Messi, and plans to issue a
special club membership card to Messi's son. On March 2013, Lionel Messi
donated €600,000 towards the refurbishment of a children's hospital in his
hometown of Rosario, Argentina. The money was used to renovate the oncology
unit at the Victor J Vilela Children's Hospital, as well as paying for doctors
to travel to Barcelona for training.
References
