Leo Messi, with Four Ballon d'Or awards to his name (2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012) can be officially considered the best player in the world. But despite so many individual virtues, he is also a remarkable team player.
This Argentinian striker's footballing career started in 1995 at Newell's Old Boys, where he played until the year 2000. At the age of 13, Lionel Messi crossed the Atlantic to try his luck in Barcelona, and joined the Under 14s.
Messi made spectacular progress at each of the different age levels, climbing through the ranks to Barça C, followed by Barça B and the first team in record time.
In the 2003-2004 season, when he was still only 16, Messi made his first team debut in a friendly with Porto that marked the opening of the new Dragao stadium.
The following championship-winning season, Messi made his first appearance in an official match on October 16, 2004, in Barcelona's derby win against Espanyol at the Olympic Stadium (0-1). With several first team players seriously injured, the services of several reserve team players were called upon, and Messi became a regular feature of Barça squads.
On May 1, 2005, he became the youngest player ever to score a league goal for FC Barcelona - against Albacete when Messi was only 17 years, 10 months and 7 days old. That record would eventually be beaten by Bojan.
At the Under 20 World Cup in Holland, Messi not only won the title with Argentina, but was also the leading goalscorer and was voted best player in the tournament. Aged 18 years, he had become one of the hottest properties in the world game. Shortly after, he made his first full international appearance in a friendly against Hungary.
His breakthrough came in the 2005-06 season, starting with an amazing performance in the Joan Gamper Trophy match against Juventus. He was also outstanding at the Santiago Bernabéu, in Barcelona's unforgettable 3-0 win, and also at Stamford Bridge, in the Champions League match against Chelsea. Injury kept him sidelined for much of the latter stage of the season, but Messi still played a total of 17 league games, 6 in the Champions League and 2 in the Copa del Rey, and scored eight goals
The following season Messi moved up a gear and astounded the world with goals such as the one he scored against Getafe in the Copa del Rey. In the 2006/07 season, and even though the team didn't win any titles, the Argentine was second in the FIFA World Player awards and third in the Ballon d’Or. He continued to develop in the 2007/08 campaign, when he scored 16 goals and gave 10 assists in the 40 games he played in. In 2008, Leo Messi was runner up in the FIFA World Player awards for the second season in a row.
In the 2008/09 season, and now without Ronaldinho alongside him, Messi became the main star of the Barça show. He managed to stay injury free all season, and played 51 games, scoring 38 goals. The Argentinian was also fundamental in the Copa del Rey and Champions League finals, scoring Barça's second goals in both. In 2009, he finally won both the FIFA World Player and Ballon d’Or.
How far can Leo Messi go? He was the league's top scorer in the 2009-10 season and equalled Ronaldo's historic total of 34 goals (96-97). He scored the goal against Estudiantes that won Barça the Club's first World Club Cup.
But without settling for that, the Argentinian went even further in the 2010/11 season, scoring no fewer than 53 official goals, a Spanish record only matched by Cristiano Ronaldo (that very same season). Messi, like in Rome, played a vital role in the Champions League final at Wembley were scored a scorcher from outside the area to put his team ahead. In 2011, he also won the Ballon d’Or for the third time, a feat only previously achieved by Cruyff, Platini and Van Basten and a year later became the first player ever to win it four times. In 2013 and 2014 he came second, making it eight years in a row that he has been among the top three footballers in the world.
The season 2011/12 is when Messi moves past César Rodríguez's record of 232 goals to become the Club's all time top goalscorer. He achieves this on the 20th of March 2012 in a 5-3 victory over Granada in which he scores a brilliant hat-trick.
Two days earlier, on March 7, 2012, the football world watched in awe as he scored five goals in a single game against Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
On May 5, 2012, the Leo Messi legend was extended in the derby against Espanyol, when he made it to an unprecedented 50 goals in a league season, having scored four goals in three different matches. A remarkable season ended with one of the finest goals of his career in the Copa del Rey final against Bilbao. In the 2011/12 season he has scored in every competition he played in, totally an astonishing 73 as Barça conquered the Spanish Supercup, European Supercup, Clubs World Cup and the Copa del Rey. He ended 2012 with the record number of goals in a calendar year (91), thus beating the historic tally established by Gerd Müller (85 for Bayern Munich and Germany in 1972).
The 2014/2015 season was one of the Argentine star's most brilliant. Messi was one of the great architects of the second Treble in club history, six years after winning the League, the Spanish Cup, and the UEFA Champions League in the same season. Thanks to his 56 goals in all three competitions, Messi established two almost unattainable records. First, in a game against Sevilla at Camp Nou Messi surpassed Telmo Zarra's 251 career goals to become the all-time leading scorer in league history. Second, with a hat-trick at APOEL Nicosia, Messi passed Raul's 71 career goals to become the all-time leading scorer in Champions League history. Messi closed the season with 77 goals in 99 career UCL games.
Messi also led the tournament in scoring for the fifth time — tied with Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo at 10 each. The Argentinian also surpassed Luis Figo's all-time La Liga assist record (105).
Messi is also captain of the Argentina national and has played in two World Cups (2006 and 2010) and two Copa Americas (2007 and 2011). In the summer of 2008 he also played at the Beijing Olympics, and came home with a gold medal.
| League | Champions League | Copa del Rey | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matches played | 10 | 2 | 0 |
| Matches won | 7 | 1 | 0 |
| Matches drawn | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Matches lost | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Matches as starter | 8 | 2 | 0 |
| Matches as substitute | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Matches substituted | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Minutes played | 738 | 187 | 0 |
| Minutes played as starter | 669 | 187 | 0 |
| Minutes played as substitute | 69 | 0 | 0 |
| Goals for | 5 | 2 | 0 |
| Goals as starter | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| Goals as substitute | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Goals from headers | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Goals from penalties | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Goals from free kicks | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Left footed goals | 5 | 2 | 0 |
| Right footed goals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Goals from collective play | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Goals from individual play | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Goals from dead balls | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Crosses into area | 15 | 5 | 0 |
| Assists | 20 | 2 | 0 |
| Goal assists | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| Shots | 53 | 16 | 0 |
| Shots off target | 12 | 5 | 0 |
| Shots on target | 23 | 7 | 0 |
| Shots from penalties | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Shots from collective play | 30 | 12 | 0 |
| Shots from individual play | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| Shots from dead balls | 10 | 1 | 0 |
| Shots from free kicks | 10 | 1 | 0 |
| Shots on posts | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Right footed shots | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| Left footed shots | 48 | 15 | 0 |
| Headed shots | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Offsides | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Yellow cards | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Yellow cards caused | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Straight red cards | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Red cards for two bookable offences | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Red cards caused | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Corners | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Fouls committed | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| Fouls received | 11 | 4 | 0 |
| Balls recovered | 8 | 2 | 0 |
| Balls lost | 103 | 26 | 0 |
| Penalties received | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Penalties committed | 0 | 0 | 0   |
| 7League | 4Champions League | 3Spanish Cup | 3UEFA Super Cup | 6Spanish Supercup | 3FIFA Club World Cup |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015/16 | 2015/16 | ||||
| 2014/15 | 2014/15 | 2014/15 | |||
| 2013/14 | |||||
| 2012/13 | |||||
| 2011/12 | 2011/12 | 2011/12 | 2011-12 | ||
| 2010/11 | 2010/11 | 2010/11 | |||
| 2009/10 | 2009/10 | 2009/10 | 2009/10 | ||
| 2008/09 | 2008/09 | 2008/09 | |||
| 2006/07 | |||||
| 2005/06 | 2005/06 | 2005/06 | |||
| 2004/05 |