Lionel Messi's FanPage

Lionel Messi's FanPage

Biography

Luis Lionel Andres Messi (b. June 24, 1987) is an Argentinian soccer player who plays forward for the FC Barcelona club and the Argentine national team. At the age of 13, Messi moved from Argentina to Spain after FC Barcelona agreed to pay for his medical treatments. There he became a star and led his club to championships. In 2012, he set a record for most goals in a calendar year, and in 2016, he was named Europe's Ballon d'Or winner for the fifth time. As of 2017 Lionel Messi is worth an estimated $80 million, taking into account his salary plus bonuses and endorsements, according to Forbes.com. That makes Messi the second highest-paid soccer player and the third highest-paid athlete in the world, after fellow soccer great Cristiano Ronaldo and basketball star LeBron James. Almost universally regarded as the best soccer player in the game, Messi has become the commercial face of soccer with endorsements from Adidas, Pepsi, EA Sports and Turkish Airways, among other companies. Recognizably smaller than most of the kids in his age group, Messi was eventually diagnosed by doctors as suffering from a hormone deficiency that restricted his growth. Messi's parents, Jorge and Ceclia, decided on a regimen of nightly growth-hormone injections for their son, though it soon proved impossible to pay several hundred dollars per month for the medication. So, at the age of 13, when Messi was offered the chance to train at soccer powerhouse FC Barcelona's youth academy, La Masia, and have his medical bills covered by the team, Messi's family picked up and moved across the Atlantic to make a new home in Spain. Although he was often homesick in his new country, Messi moved quickly through the junior system ranks.

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