Lionel Messi is a household name in the football world who arrived on to the fray finely when he debuted in an official match for FC Barcelona against arch-rivals Espanyol on October 16, 2004. After his breakout season in 2005-06, everyone knew he was the biggest superstar of the football world. The kind of tricks and skills he possessed was unparalleled, and whenever he is on the field, there is something different about everything that the team does. He tends to build that kind of aura around the team, the passing, the shooting, and the temperament, and the guy has it all. We look at how and where Lionel Messi came from and how he turned into one of the greatest players ever.

People who know about Messi’s life very well know about the fact that he had a rare hormone disease. Messi was diagnosed with a growth hormone disorder or GHD. It is often called idiopathic short stature, but some problems go beyond being shorter than average. The treatments were expensive, a $900 monthly expense that his modest family could not afford. River Plate and Newell’s Old Boys, old Argentinian clubs, passed on that expense despite the promise of a very young Messi. Messi signed the deal of his life when he joined FC Barcelona as a teenager at 13. Barcelona agreed to pay for the medical expenses of the promising teenager, and Messi underwent treatment in Barcelona. The lucky thing that protected Messi after and during the treatment was that the drugs involved in his therapy were banned, but doping checks didn’t begin in 2004; Messi was safe from a ban from football. 

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Since the breakout season that Messi had, he never looked back. The investment that Barcelona had made in his childhood was certainly paying off. It was time for Messi to announce himself on the world stage and prove to the world that he is the game’s future for a long time to come. He was ready to break and shatter records and started doing that when he scored his first-ever career hat-trick for Barcelona against Real Madrid in the greatest ever football game, on March 10, 2007. This hat-trick meant that Messi became the youngest player ever to score a hat-trick for Barcelona. He didn’t stop there, he caused havoc all around the pitch, reflecting in the team’s performances in various competitions. Then came his magical 91 goal calendar year, some teams aren’t able to score 50-60 goals each year, and then there was Messi, who scored 91 goals in a calendar year in 2012 from just 69 games, shattering records everywhere. He was the first player to win the Ballon D’or six times and the La Liga golden boot six times. He has won the UEFA Champions League three times which is an outstanding achievement. He has been involved in over 1000 goals and has scored more than 700 goals, and has made 300 assists proving his capabilities as a player.

Lionel Messi is arguably one of the complete players the football world has ever seen, and that has been proved by the number of accolades he has received as an individual and as a team player. The only thing that Messi hasn’t achieved is an International trophy, which can be done this time around since he is participating in the Copa America with Argentina and has a perfect chance at winning that. Messi,34, will be looking forward to the next phase of his career now and would like to leave Barcelona at a sound stage with many great players whenever he decides to retire in the coming years.