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Lionel Messi

Lionel Andrés Messi is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for Spanish club FC Barcelona and the Argentina national team. Often considered the best player in the world, Messi is the only player in history to win five FIFA Ballon d'Or awards, and a record-tying four European Golden Shoes. He has won 29 trophies with Barcelona, including eight La Liga titles, four UEFA Champions League titles, and five Copas del Rey. Messi holds the records for most official goals scored in La Liga (349), a La Liga season (50) and a club football season in Europe (73), as well as those for most assists made in La Liga (137) and the Copa América (11). He has scored over 500 senior career goals for club and country.

Born in central Argentina, Messi was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency as a child. At age 13, he relocated to Spain to join Barcelona, who agreed to pay for his medical treatment. Messi made his competitive debut aged 17. Despite being injury-prone during his early career,he finished 2007 as a finalist for both the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year award, a feat he repeated the following year. During the 2008-09 season, he helped Barcelona achieve the first treble in Spanish football. At 22 years old, Messi won the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year award.

Three successful seasons followed, with Messi winning three consecutive FIFA Ballons d'Or. His best season was the 2011-12 season, in which he set the La Liga and European records for most goals scored in a single season, and he became Barcelona's all-time top scorer in official competitions in March 2012. Messi broke the all-time goalscoring records in both La Liga and the Champions League in November 2014.

An Argentine international, Messi is his country's all-time leading goalscorer. At youth level, he won the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship, and an Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics. During the 2006 competition, Messi became the youngest Argentine to play and score in a FIFA World Cup. As the squad's captain from August 2011, he led Argentina to three consecutive finals: the 2014 World Cup, for which he won the Golden Ball, and the 2015 and 2016 Copas América.

Born on the 24th June 1987 in Rosario, Argentina

There are more important things in life than winning or losing a game.

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