Lionel Messi is a soccer player. People call him Leo. He was born in Rosario, Argentina, on June 24, 1987. He is famous for scoring lots of goals. As a boy, Messi joined the youth teams of Newell's Old Boys. It is a club in his home city of Rosario. As of November 2026, he plays for a team called Inter Miami CF. Let us look at his life.

At age 13, Messi joined FC Barcelona. As a teenager, he moved from Argentina to Spain. He moved quickly up through Barcelona's youth teams. He first played for the Barcelona first team when he was 16. It was a friendly match with Porto. He played 778 matches for Barcelona. He won 10 La Liga titles with Barcelona. He won the Champions League four times. He left Barcelona in the summer of 2021. As of November 2026, he is Barcelona's record goalscorer, with 672 goals.

Messi won two Ligue 1 titles with Paris Saint-Germain. He has won the Ballon d'Or eight times. No other player has won more. This is true as of November 2026. He has played for Argentina's national soccer team. He won an Olympic gold medal with Argentina in 2008. Argentina won the Copa America in 2021 with Messi on the team. Argentina won it again in 2024. So Messi has two Copa America titles.

In the 2022 World Cup final, Messi put Argentina ahead 1-0 with a first-half penalty. He scored two goals in the final. Argentina beat France on penalty kicks. Messi and Argentina won the World Cup in 2022. It was Messi's first World Cup title. It was the third time Argentina had won the World Cup. Messi scored seven goals at the 2022 World Cup. He was named the best player of the 2022 World Cup and won the Golden Ball.

Words to know

• penalty: a free kick
• Olympic: of the Games
• goalscorer: goal getter
• titles: winning prizes