Lionel Messi is a soccer player, and people call him Leo. He was born in Rosario, Argentina, on June 24, 1987. As a boy, Messi joined the youth teams of Newell's Old Boys, a club in his home city of Rosario. At age 13, he joined FC Barcelona. As a teenager, he moved from Argentina to Spain. Messi moved quickly up through Barcelona's youth teams. He first played for the Barcelona first team in a friendly match with Porto, when he was 16.

Messi played 778 matches for Barcelona. He won 10 La Liga titles and the Champions League four times with the club. As of November 2026, he is Barcelona's record goalscorer, with 672 goals. He left Barcelona in the summer of 2021. He won two Ligue 1 titles with Paris Saint-Germain. As of November 2026, Messi plays for a team called Inter Miami CF. In 2024, Inter Miami won its first Supporters' Shield, with Messi. As of November 2026, Messi won the MLS Most Valuable Player award in 2024 and 2025. He was the first player in league history to win it in consecutive seasons.

Messi 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 2022, Messi and Argentina won the World Cup. It was his first World Cup title. It was the third time Argentina had won it. As of November 2026, he has won the Ballon d'Or eight times, more than any other player. As of November 2026, he has played more than 1,000 games for club and country.

In the 2022 World Cup final, Messi put Argentina ahead 1-0 with a first-half penalty. He scored his second goal of the final in the 108th minute, in extra time, to put Argentina ahead 3-2. Argentina beat France on penalty kicks. Messi scored two goals in the final. Messi is famous for scoring lots of goals. He 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
• extra: added
• consecutive: in a row
• goalscorer: goal getter